Owing to safety concerns, all Natural Gas Vehicles or NGVs are to be phased out by July 1, next year in a decision taken by the Federal Cabinet on Oct 2, 2024 which will witness a better transformation for Malaysians.

Malaysia’s oil & gas giant PETRONAS has been instructed to begin the immediate task of phasing out the sale of NGV fuel at its stations and completely halt sales by July 1, next year which is going to be a game changer for the industry.

According to JPJ, the Road Transport Department, there are at present 44,383 registered NGVs, of which 9,509 are NGV taxis, 32,137 private registered NGVs, 2,150 NGV buses and lorries and another 587 NGVs used for machinery works.

Based on feedback received by the Ministry of Transport, there are NGV owners who have relied on used NGV tanks or carried out unauthorised modification by using Liquefied Petroleum Gas or LPG tanks.

The Transport Ministry stated that several aid packages would be made available to taxi drivers while the other package covers the dismantling of NGV kits in dual fuel vehicles, including those operated by a number of taxis.

While the government would bear the dismantling costs, it will only do so if the dismantling is done at their panel of authorised workshops and applications will close on April 30, 2025 while a one off payment will be made for fully NGV or mono fuel vehicles.

-THE MALAYSIA VOICE