KUALA LUMPUR: Automotive player, Sime Darby Motors Malaysia (SDM) and global biopharmaceutical company, AstraZeneca have forged a collaboration to accelerate the adoption of electric vehicles (EVs) under the former for AstraZeneca’s employees.
In a joint statement, the parties said the signing of the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) marked AstraZeneca’s commitment to transition to EV fleet in line with its Ambition Zero Carbon sustainability programme to reduce carbon emission and address climate change.
Ambition Zero Carbon is AstraZeneca’s decarbonisation strategy to reduce carbon footprint and achieve net-zero emissions for planetary health.
“Through partnerships such as this, the company would be able to maximise its transition to EVs to reduce carbon footprint,” AstraZeneca said.
The partnership between a biopharmaceutical company and SDM is the first in Malaysia and would entail the provision of corporate rates to AstraZeneca’s employees to own an EV, in particular, BMW, BYD and Hyundai.
“We have very clear EV ambitions at Sime Darby Motors and partners such as AstraZeneca play important roles as enablers in helping us achieve our target of a more energy-efficient product portfolio by 2025 and becoming a leader for EV in Malaysia,” said Jeffrey Gan, managing director, SDM retail and distribution - Southeast Asia, Hong Kong and Macau.
With a focus on a more energy-efficient product portfolio, SDM is expanding its EV line-up, charging network, as well as highly-skilled workforce for EV retail and aftersales services.-Bernama
