With only 21 charging stations, Cambodia could welcome more than 2,200 electric vehicles, an increase of 620 percent.
Regarding this growth, Xinhua News Agency reported that electric vehicle registrations in 2024 surged the most. Regarding this statistic, the Ministry of Public Works and Transport said that nationwide, Cambodia registered a total of 2,253 electric vehicles in 2024, compared to only 313 in 2023.
The report said that the most popular electric vehicle brands currently are cars from China’s BYD, Japan’s Toyota, and the US’s Tesla, among other companies.
Mr. Sam Romna, a resident of Phnom Penh, said that Electric cars are not like the electric cars that are designed like toy cars. They are beautiful and generally modern and can be used like ordinary gasoline cars.
He continued, “Right now, even though I still drive a gasoline car, in the future, if there are more electric charging stations, I will also drive an electric car because it is much cheaper.” He said that currently, electric car drivers still have a hard time finding charging stations, and another point is that when they break down, it is even harder to find them. But if these two obstacles are resolved, everyone will likely be able to switch to using them more.
He continued that from what he has experienced driving his own electric car, if it is driven in the city, it is the lowest cost and it is quiet, but most importantly, it is fast and can carry people like a normal car, but it can be a little difficult to find a charging station when going to the provinces because the electricity in the provinces is weak and there are no public charging stations. Regarding the cost, he stated that “using an electric car is very cheap, meaning that 100 kilometers cost less than $5, but gasoline like my car can cost more than $10, just because it is used to walking to find a charging point.”
According to the project, to contribute to promoting environmental protection and reducing various costs, Cambodia aims to encourage citizens to use this type of car and increase the number of electric cars to 30,000 by 2030. We will continue to monitor whether this project will be achieved.
In 2024, Cambodia registered a total of more than 410,000 vehicles, of which more than 350,000 were motorcycles, more than 50,000 were light vehicles, and nearly 6,000 were heavy vehicles.
