Modenas expands TVET opportunities in EV tech
TLDR
- Modenas is widening its TVET push to cover EV technology, training Malaysian technicians for the electric motorcycle era
- The DRB-HICOM subsidiary has been layering EV know-how into its training pipeline since late 2025
- The move follows the rollout of its MEV-series electric mopeds and bikes in Pos Malaysia’s fleet
- EV-focused TVET slots add to Modenas’s existing GIATMARA tie-up and SMK Pendidikan Khas Bumbong Lima collaboration
- Malaysia’s national motorcycle brand is positioning itself as the go-to training ground for two-wheeler EV service
Modenas Puts EV Tech At The Centre Of Its Skills Push
Modenas is doubling down on electric motorcycle training, folding EV technology into its existing Technical and Vocational Education and Training (TVET) programmes as Malaysia’s national motorcycle brand races to stay relevant in an electrifying market. According to a report in the New Straits Times, the DRB-HICOM subsidiary is expanding its TVET pathways to cover the full stack of EV know-how, from high-voltage battery handling to drivetrain diagnostics and motor controller tuning.
The shift lands at an interesting moment. Modenas has been quietly building up its electric portfolio for years, but 2026 has been the year it stops treating EVs as a side project. Its MEV-series electric mopeds and the newer MEV-1 Pro are already on showroom floors, while a fleet of 1,092 Modenas electric motorcycles is now in active service with Pos Malaysia, replacing older petrol bikes for last-mile deliveries across the country. None of that matters if there are no technicians in Malaysian workshops who actually know how to fix these bikes when something goes wrong.
Building On Existing Training Ties
Modenas is not starting from zero. The company first inked a TVET-focused memorandum of understanding with GIATMARA back in November 2025, focused specifically on building local capability around electric motorcycles. That partnership gave Modenas a national network of training centres to work with, which is the kind of infrastructure money cannot buy quickly.
Earlier this year, Modenas also announced a collaboration with SMK Pendidikan Khas Bumbong Lima, a special education school, on industry-aligned learning for students. That programme focused on giving students with disabilities a pathway into motorcycle and EV technical work, an area where Malaysia badly needs more trained hands. The new expansion essentially takes these scattered TVET efforts and consolidates them under one EV-focused umbrella, so the company is not running three different training tracks that overlap.
Modenas has also been investing in the after-sales side. In late June, the company rolled out Modenas Service Plus, an EV-specific after-sales framework designed to give customers confidence that their electric bikes can actually be serviced somewhere outside the Klang Valley. EV after-sales remains one of the biggest psychological barriers to adoption in Malaysia, and Modenas clearly sees training as the answer to that hesitation.
Why This Matters For Malaysia’s EV Rollout
The bigger picture here is that Malaysia has set ambitious EV adoption targets, but the supporting ecosystem of trained technicians, certified workshops and curriculum-aligned programmes has lagged badly behind the vehicle launches. Most local EV training efforts so far have focused on cars, since that is where the policy attention and corporate money sit. Two-wheeler EV training is the awkward middle child that rarely gets headlines but quietly determines whether the country’s electrification push actually works on the ground.
Modenas is one of the few Malaysian brands with the scale, the existing dealer footprint, and the policy goodwill to anchor a TVET push. Whether this translates into a real pipeline of EV-certified technicians in Kota Bharu, Sandakan or Ipoh over the next two years is another question entirely.
Our Take
This is a sensible, low-key CSR move from a company that actually has the infrastructure to back it up, which already puts it ahead of most tech-CSR announcements we see. Modenas is not pledging to “transform Malaysia’s EV future” or splashing vague cash around. It is doing the unglamorous work of training people to fix the bikes it is already selling and putting into government fleets. That is genuinely useful.
The skeptic in us notes that Modenas’s MOUs with GIATMARA and SMK Pendidikan Khas Bumbong Lima were both small-scale pilots, and the company has not published any concrete numbers on how many technicians have actually been certified or are working in EV servicing today. The “expansion” framing is generous given the starting base. Still, for a national motorcycle maker that has otherwise been quiet on the CSR front, this is a credible step in the right direction, and one we will be watching to see whether it scales beyond Subang and Shah Alam.
