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Malaysia's Road Transport Department (JPJ) has issued a Phase 2 RFP for its JPJePlate smart licence plate programme, formally starting the procurement process to extend RFID-embedded plates to petrol and diesel vehicles, hybrids, OKU-registered vehicles and commercial trade plates. Together, these categories account for the vast majority of vehicles in Malaysia.

The announcement comes as JPJ deploys the Automated Number Plate Recognition Integrated Enforcement Project (ANPR P-B), a 375-camera national enforcement network operating from a central control room in Cyberjaya, alongside 1,000 smart management enforcement devices. The two systems provide dual verification: the RFID chip cryptographically authenticates the plate, while ANPR cameras optically verify the registration number. Neither system can provide the same level of verification on its own.

JPJ posted the Phase 2 RFP on Sept 3, using the same procurement model adopted in 2023 for the first JPJePlate rollout for electric vehicles. The full RFP document will be available from Sept 10 after a mandatory industry briefing, which all prospective bidders must attend. Submissions close at noon on Oct 30, Malaysia time. Companies with relevant experience and sufficient financial capacity to develop and operate special number plates are invited to submit proposals, with all submission costs to be borne by the bidders.

What the RFP covers

The scope covers the rekaan plat khas (RPK), or special plate, for petrol and diesel internal combustion engine vehicles, hybrid vehicles, OKU-registered vehicles and trade plates. Zero-emission vehicles other than battery electric vehicles (BEVs) are also included. As BEVs already use Phase 1 plates, this category is understood to cover hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles (FCEVs), which share the ZEV classification but currently have no designated plate format.

Two restrictions from Phase 1 remain. The new plate will be mandatory only for new registrations and will not apply to the millions of existing ICE and hybrid vehicles already on the road. Motorcycles are excluded from the ePlate programme.

How the RFID plate works

The JPJePlate is based on the IDePLATE platform developed by Toennjes International Group and manufactured in Malaysia by Handal Ceria, the same companies involved in Phase 1. Made from aluminium rather than the acrylic used in Malaysia's traditional system, the plate features embossed FE-Schrift lettering on a white background, a Malaysian flag on the left and a coloured powertrain identifier bar.

The front plate contains a passive RAIN UHF RFID chip operating at 860–960 MHz under the ISO/IEC 18000-63 standard. It has no battery, drawing power from the radio signal emitted by a roadside reader before transmitting a response. Its approximate 10 to 15-metre range is sufficient for identifying vehicles travelling at highway speeds without requiring them to stop.

The system's anti-cloning feature is the Tag Identifier (TID), a code embedded in the chip during silicon wafer manufacturing. Stored in a permanently locked memory bank, the TID cannot be changed through field operations, and no two chips share the same identifier. When a reader interrogates the plate, the code is checked against JPJ's vehicle registration database through IDeTRUST middleware. The chip itself stores no personal driver data, only general vehicle information such as type, colour and model.

A second RFID device, the IDeSTIX windscreen sticker, is installed inside the windscreen and paired with the front plate. It contains its own RFID chip and QR code and is designed to self-destruct if removal is attempted. This gives enforcement readers two machine-readable identity points: the front plate and the windscreen sticker.

The Phase 1 set—front and rear plates plus the windscreen RFID sticker—cost RM98, including delivery from the Cyberjaya production facility. Installation must be carried out by JPJ-appointed parties. Nearly 500 authorised installers were operating nationwide by the end of 2024. Phase 2 pricing has not been announced and will be determined through the RFP process.

RFID plate to authenticate ANPR detections

JPJ's decision to extend ePlate coverage to the wider vehicle fleet takes on added significance alongside its May 2026 announcement of ANPR P-B—a 36-month pilot involving 375 ANPR cameras and 1,000 smart management enforcement devices at locations nationwide, linked to a Cyberjaya control centre.

ANPR uses cameras and character-recognition software to read number plates. It can identify whether a registration number is valid, road tax has been paid, insurance is current or a vehicle appears on a stolen-vehicle list. However, it cannot establish whether the physical plate is the one issued for that number. A cloned plate displaying a legitimate number can therefore defeat optical ANPR.

RFID plates address this weakness. The TID in a genuine JPJePlate cannot be replicated in the field, so a cloned plate cannot transmit the matching signal even if it displays the same number. A gantry equipped with both systems can cross-check the optical number against the RFID TID. A match confirms authenticity, while an absent or mismatched RFID signal can automatically trigger enforcement action. The chip-level anti-cloning protection is built into the silicon during manufacture.

Transport Minister Anthony Loke, who directed JPJ to replace traditional roadblocks with camera-based enforcement earlier this year, described the ANPR shift as an efficiency measure. JPJ director-general Datuk Aedy Fadly Ramli confirmed that ANPR P-B can detect road tax offences, uninsured vehicles, Vehicle Entry Permit non-compliance, emergency-lane misuse, red-light violations and mobile phone use while driving. The ePlate's RFID layer adds the capability the camera network lacks: tamper-proof plate authentication.

When RFID coverage was limited to the small EV fleet—Malaysia registered about 20,000 new BEVs in 2024—dual ANPR-RFID verification was possible for only a small proportion of vehicles. Extending RFID plates to new ICE and hybrid registrations will gradually expand that coverage each year.

Colour-bar design

The existing JPJePlate uses a coloured bar on the left to identify the vehicle's powertrain. Battery electric vehicles use neon green. Phase 2 will follow the same design language. The Teksi Madani national taxi programme, launched in July 2026 with a JPJ-designed ePlate-format plate, has shown what the ICE version may look like: a white background, red lettering and a silver or grey bar for petrol vehicles.

Industry speculation, not confirmed by JPJ, suggests diesel vehicles may use a black bar and hybrids a yellow bar, with black lettering on white across passenger vehicles. Commercial vehicles are expected to retain the traditional black-on-yellow format, with a powertrain bar added. Taxis, rental cars and limousines are expected to use the same powertrain bar colour as their ICE equivalents but with red lettering, as seen on the Teksi Madani plate. These details will be confirmed after the RFP is awarded and JPJ publishes the specifications.

Malaysia in the global context

Malaysia is among roughly 5% of countries still using traditional acrylic licence plates, a figure cited by Loke at the Phase 1 launch in 2024 and repeated in this week's announcement. Toennjes, the German manufacturer supplying Malaysia's IDePLATE technology, has deployed RFID plate systems in several markets. The Philippines is receiving more than 25 million IDeSTIX stickers under a separate national programme, while the Cayman Islands has retrofitted all 70,000 registered vehicles with IDePLATE. If awarded and implemented, Malaysia's Phase 2 RFP would eventually extend RFID-authenticated plates across one of South-East Asia's larger vehicle fleets.

What happens next

The RFP document will be available from Sept 10 after the mandatory bidder briefing, with submissions closing at noon on Oct 30. If Phase 2 follows the development timeline for Phase 1—when the EV RFP was issued in October 2023 and the plate launched in September 2024—a public launch for ICE and hybrid plates could take place in late 2027. JPJ has not announced an official timeline.

Existing ICE and hybrid owners will not need to retrofit their vehicles. Current acrylic plates will remain valid. The transition to an RFID-embedded fleet will take place gradually, one new registration at a time, as vehicles are purchased and registered in the coming years.

Currency conversions are approximate and based on exchange rates as at September 2026.

Originally published on Tech Times