NST: LOWER PRICES: A lot of promotions by vehicle manufacturers
*KUALA LUMPUR: THOSE interested in buying cars have been told to take advantage of recently lowered prices by car makers. Malaysia Automotive Institute chief executive officer Mohamad Madani Sahari said they should grab the goodies "thrown in like never before" by car makers.
He said so far, the price reduction among popular cars had reached 4.3 per cent and that this would continue over a period of five years.
"Consumers can choose to buy these cheaper cars now. Apart from the gradual price reduction, there are a lot of promotions by car manufacturers. So, consumers need to grab this opportunity now.
"When the momentum picks up, there will be fewer promotions. So, do not wait," he told the New Straits Times yesterday.
He said for the first four months of the year, car sales had increased by 11.8 per cent compared with the same period last year. "We have to wait for the May figures as they have yet to be announced."
Madani said the government started the liberalisation in stages from the start of the Asean Free Trade Agreement in 2006 and its full implementation in 2010.
Full implementation means zero per cent import duties effective January 2010.
"Another important point is that from 2010, there is no quantity limitation of cars to be imported within Asean."
The 2009 National Automotive Policy (NAP), he said, had liberalised manufacturing licences for electric vehicles and the assembly of hybrids in Malaysia.
NAP 2013 would further liberalise the market, where manufacturing licences for environment-friendly vehicles (EFV) would have no more limitation in terms of engine capacity and prices.
The free trade agreements (FTA) with Japan and Australia, which started in 2006 and 2013 respectively, will be fully implemented by 2016. The FTAs with the European Union and Trans-Pacific Partnership nations are in progress.
Madani said import duties within Asean were already at zero per cent from January 2010, while import duties from Japan and Australia would be at zero per cent in 2016.
"With this liberalisation being implemented in stages, the industry will become more competitive, meaning, more manufacturers and models will come to Malaysia.
The government has informed industry players about this liberalisation and competition is coming. They need to be ready and enhance their competitiveness."
He said local car makers, Proton and Perodua, had developed a competitiveness roadmap over the next five years, as had other foreign manufacturers.
These improvements and value- added activities, he added, were lowering the cost of operations and products.
Madani said Proton, for instance, had revised prices of its models from this month.
The automotive industry last year contributed 3.2 per cent to the country's gross domestic product. Madani said the forecast for this year was 3.4 per cent.
Meanwhile, Malaysia Automotive Association president Datuk Aishah Ahmad said it would be up to the companies to decide on the models whose prices would be slashed and the percentage of reduction.
"It is up to their marketing strategies and how they will be increasing their leverage or or even how competitive they want to be. Slowly, but surely, more companies will reduce prices in the next few years.
"It is now time to wait for car companies to echo the government's initiative by implementing it," Aishah said, adding that the government's plan to gradually reduce prices of cars by between 20 and 30 per cent in the next five years was feasible.
Seasoned automotive consultant Devindran Ramanathan lauded the government's plan to gradually reduce car prices.
Last month, Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Razak reaffirmed the government's commitment to reduce car prices in stages. Barisan Nasional had, in its election manifesto, promised to review the NAP to reduce the prices of cars by between 20 and 30 per cent in stages and raise the competitiveness of national cars.
Since October, the prices of 10 car models have been reduced by an average of 7.3 per cent.
Extracted From NST
