Tax incentives for CBU fully-imported hybrid cars have been discontinued, Minister of International Trade and Industry Datuk Seri Mustapa Mohamed declared at the ongoing National Automotive Policy (NAP 2014) announcement at Matrade, KL.
“The exemption of excise duties and import taxes for hybrids and EV will be extended for models that are (CKD) assembled in Malaysia. The exemption will be extended until December 31, 2015 for hybrids and December 31, 2017 for EVs,” the MITI minister announced.
This confirms what many in the industry have speculated, and it affects popular hybrid models with engine capacity below 2.0 litres such as the Toyota Prius and Prius c, Honda Civic Hybrid, Honda Insight, Honda CR-Z, Lexus CT200h and Audi A6 Hybrid. On the electric vehicle side, two models are affected, the Mitsubishi i-MiEV and just-launched (at KLIMS13) Nissan Leaf.
Sales of the hybrid models have been encouraging in recent years thanks to full import tax and excise duty exemption announced in Budget 2011, which was extended to end-2013 in Budget 2012. The incentives expired on December 31, 2013.
We understand that prices for current stock of the above models that are already in Malaysia will be maintained until stocks are exhausted, and some of the above CBU hybrid models will be discontinued as “regular” prices will simply be too high. The Honda Jazz Hybrid is the only CKD locally-assembled hybrid car on sale currently – it will continue to enjoy the perks until December 31, 2015.
