In the roadmaps of the automotive industry, the electric vehicle (EV) is regarded as a crucial technology for the future of automotive power systems. The EV has become a top priority of major global car manufacturers and is expected to disrupt the road transportation sector. In Malaysia and Indonesia, EVs just started as an important force. However, in Malaysia, the lack of EV infrastructure, along with its strong dependency on fossil fuels, poses an enormous challenge. The situation is very similar in Indonesia. Indonesia has huge potential as Southeast Asia’s largest vehicle market and a major nickel producer, an important EV battery ingredient. Therefore, this article addresses several critical issues in implementing EVs in Malaysia and Indonesia. In preparing this review, we have thoroughly selected very important EV keywords that are frequently asked. We have also interviewed some prominent figures in the field of EV to address the most critical aspects worth including in the paper. In doing so, we plan to provide content that will be beneficial not only to the academic world but also to the automotive industry in general. Firstly, a summary of the EV adoption scenario in each country was presented. Afterwards, the types of EVs and battery capacities available in both countries were explained. The next section focused on the adoption rate of EVs, followed by the discussion of EVs charging infrastructure. In addition to that, issues pertaining to vehicle tax credit were also addressed. The opportunities and challenges of EV were then addressed in depth before concluding remarks were given.

Autonomous vehicles have the potential to reduce the risk of accidents as they eliminate the element of human error from driving. Lack of attention, poor judgement, or physical limitations may lead to road incidents. Thus, the development and deployment of autonomous vehicles should be a priority. However, before being publicly available, autonomous vehicles must be tested to ensure their viability and safety by conducting public road testing. Autonomous vehicles have been designed and tested since the early 1900s; however, deployment of fully autonomous vehicles on public roads only started in the 2000s. Numerous countries have developed guidelines for public road testing, but those rules are not uniform, and discrepancies occur between nations. Issues such as vehicular safety, registrations, authority, insurance, cybersecurity, and infrastructures weigh differently in each country. Synthesizing these diverse national regulations into global guidelines would promote the safety and sustainability of autonomous vehicle testing and benefit all parties interested in autonomous vehicles.

This paper investigates impact of magnetite dispersed in butanol and added to two varied blends of palm biodiesel and diesel (B20 and B30). The developed fuel samples were characterized and tested on single cylinder diesel Yanmar engine (L70N) to observe engine behavior for emissions and performance. Results are compared with two reference fuels: YF50 fuel contains 50 ppm magnetite in B20 and B_n10Y90 contains 10% butanol with 90% B20. Addition of magnetite and butanol depletes emissions levels and improve performance compared to ordinary B20 and B30 however; samples with higher dosage of magnetite (150 ppm) yielded better results in performance and emission compared with lower dosage (75 ppm). The best sample was C10Z90 which entails 150 ppm magnetite in butanol added at 10% to B30. Brake thermal efficiency (BTE) at highest brake power (BP) point for C10Z90 was 37.28% compared to others (32.88%, 35.22% and 35.96%). Additionally, brake specific fuel consumption (BSFC) of C10Z90 was at least 8.29 g/Kw.hr and at most 84.52 g/Kw.hr less than other samples at highest BP point. Results indicated C10Z90 was lower in carbon-monoxide, hydrocarbon and smoke except for oxides of nitrogen. Artificial Neural Network (ANN) model successfully predicted BTE, BSFC and emissions of the dual fuel application.

Cylinder deactivation has been utilized by vehicle manufacturers since the 80's to improve fuel consumption and exhaust emissions. Cylinder deactivation is achieved by cutting off fuel supply and ignition in some of the engine cylinders, while their inlet and outlet valves are fully closed. The vehicle demand during cylinder deactivation is sustained by only the firing cylinders, hence increasing their indicated power. Conventionally, half the number of cylinders are shut at certain driving conditions, which normally at the lower demand regime. An optimal strategy will ensure cylinder deactivation contributes to the fuel saving without compromising the vehicle drivability.Cylinder deactivation has been documented to generally improve fuel consumption between 6 to 25 %, depending on the type-approval test drive cycle. However, type-approval test has been reported to differ from the “real-world” fuel consumption values. Therefore the documented fuel consumption might not be representable for consumers in their actual driving. The Malaysian authorities have been using the NEDC test to measure the emission and fuel consumption for declaration purposes, which may be misleading. This paper presents the measurement and analysis of an engine operating with cylinder deactivation, tested on a dynamometer in accordance to the actual driving conditions rather than the NEDC. This is to understand the actual benefits of cylinder deactivation in the real world. The regular Malaysian urban driving conditions were previously identified and applied in this analysis.To understand the engine operational behaviour, a piezoelectric sensor was instrumented on the engine to acquire the in-cylinder pressure traces. Test results from this study have shown that cylinder deactivation improves fuel consumption and thermodynamic efficiencies for the actual Malaysian driving conditions. The fuel consumption benefit also correlates well with the improvements on the mean effective pressures. Engine pumping mean effective pressure reduced as much as 19.4% and the thermal efficiency was consistently improved up to 5% during the cylinder deactivated operation. These improvements were achieved while maintaining similar brake mean effective pressures as if when all cylinders are firing. Most importantly, these improvements fall within the regular actual urban driving conditions, thus will be most beneficial for Malaysian drivers. Furthermore, the recorded engine operating characteristics will be the key in determining the correct strategy towards maximizing the benefits of cylinder deactivation for the Malaysian urban driving conditions.