A year after originally envisioned, BMW Group Malaysia is finally exporting CKD locally-assembled vehicles to the Philippines, as reported by AutoIndustriya.com.
During a test drive of the G30 520i Luxury in the archipelago, the publication discovered documentation in the glovebox proving that the car was built in Kulim, Kedah – a fact confirmed by the president of Philippine distributor SMC Asia Car (SMAC), Spencer Yu. The importation of Malaysian-assembled cars leverages the ASEAN Free Trade Area (AFTA) agreement, as the resulting lower import duties lead to better pricing.
“There is indeed a cost advantage on acquiring vehicles from Malaysia like the BMW 520i Luxury,” said Yu. “Taking into consideration critical factors such as production and shipping costs, we are able to realize marginal savings. SMAC then passes on these savings to the customer allowing us to have the most competitive products in the segment.”
Those savings are fairly substantial – while the 520i Luxury will be priced at “around 4.5 million pesos” (RM370,000), BMW’s participation in the upcoming SEA Games in the Philippines has allowed the company to offer limited units of the car at 3.99 million pesos (RM328,500). That’s a whopping one million pesos (RM82,200) less than the diesel-powered 520d.
Yu reassured buyers that the cars are built to the same quality standard here as they are in Germany. “Filipinos may expect that BMW vehicles assembled in Malaysia are engineered in true BMW fashion, by a team of experts appointed by our executive office in Germany. This means that our discerning buyers may now purchase the best of BMW with the best value,” he said.
The executive added that SMAC was “working towards that goal” of bringing in more models assembled in Malaysia, which include the 1 Series, 3 Series, 6 Series Gran Turismo, 7 Series, X1, X3, X4 and X5.
GALLERY: G30 BMW 520i Luxury in Malaysia
How abt left-hand drive Protons to Filipina.
The biggest BMW assembling plant is not in Germany, but Greer, South Carolina, USA. X3, X4, X5, X6 and X7 are assembled there.
Standard 520i price is RM370,000 while the same selling in Malaysia is under RM 330,000 and in Thailand its RM496,638. So where’s that joker that was constantly screaming we have the highest car prices in the world?
I wonder in his mind, Thailand and Philippines are not in this planet.
Presume it is not cheaper because we are “assembling the product wholesale” for the manufacturer
Hmmmm dont Philippines drive on the right, which means thier driver seat is on the left? Its opposite of Malaysia, how do they import malaysian ckd models?
We can assemble LHD too.
Spot on Paul. We can assemble LHD Bmw and China can assemble our RHD X70 too…
Japan can do the same. RHD country but exporting many LHD cars to other markets.
Even our proton did produce LHD cars for europe, for china (youngman) and middle east like egypt and iran
Good luck, Philippines! Rattling?
Even the BMW exports (which helps Malaysia GDP!)
Proton X70 is all imports!!