Mercedes-Benz Malaysia Confident Of Securing Extensions For NAP Incentives

Mercedes-Benz Malaysia is likely to continue selling its locally-assembled Mercedes-Benz E300 BlueTec Hybrid and S400L Hybrid at their current tax-exempted prices of RM348,888 and RM587,888 respectively beyond 2015, said Mr. Mark Raine, Vice-President of Sales and Marketing at Mercedes-Benz Malaysia.

Both the locally-assembled (at the DRB-Hicom plant in Pekan, Pahang) diesel-electric E300 BlueTec Hybrid and the petrol-electric S400L Hybrid are exempted from excise duties and import duties (for imported components) under the National Automotive Policy 2014.

Raine was speaking at the company's Q3 2015 business review earlier today, where the company announced a new range of lower-priced C-Class models, thanks to incentives provided by NAP 2014.

The incentives for locally-assembled hybrids are supposed to expire by 31-December 2015 but Mercedes-Benz Malaysia is confident that both its hybrid models will continue to be made available to customers at the same prices in 2016.

"For our hybrids in our model range, we have also applied for an extension, and we are just in the process. We are optimistic that we can continue with our prices as they are now," said Mark Raine, Vice-President of Sales and Marketing. 

Rather than calling it an extension, Mercedes-Benz Malaysia explains the company had made a new, separate application to enjoy the same incentives beyond 2015.

Currently, the only other tax-exempted (proper) hybrid vehicle is the Toyota Camry 2.5 Hybrid. However, we understand that the situation with the Camry Hybrid is still unclear, as UMW Toyota has yet to obtain a firm answer from the government.

The Camry 2.5 Hybrid, assembled in Shah Alam, is currently sold at RM174,900 excluding insurance. 

There's also the locally-assembled Nissan Serena S-Hybrid, but that's a pseudo hybrid and it doesn't have any high cost hybrid components inside. Prices are unlikely to go any lower, with or without incentives.