Toyota Prius To Be Assembled In Thailand; Thai-Built Units Expected To Supply ASEAN

Toyota Motor Thailand (TMT) has confirmed that the Toyota Prius will be assembled in Thailand, with details of the Thai-built Prius to be announced at a soft launch on October 21 before an official launch in November. TMT already assembles the Camry Hybrid, and so the Prius should pose little technical challenges to the company's Thai-plant which will continue to source batteries and engines from Japan.

The Prius is manufactured in Japan, China and now Thailand. Malaysia's supply of Prius units comes from Japan, but with this latest development, the odds are that future Prius units will be imported from Thailand in order to lower transportation costs. Since the Prius' RM 175K pricing has been arrived at with 100 percent import duty and 50 percent excise duty exemption, importing the Prius from Thailand, a member of the ASEAN, no longer allows a further 30 percent of the import duty on CBU models to be alleviated.

The better news is of course the Malaysian government's Budget 2011, which has announced the full exemption of import duty and excise duty on hybrid/electric vehicles for 2011. That means a further 50 percent reduction in excise duty compared with the current duty structure, and the Prius' price tag possibly revised to between RM 120K and RM 130K.

AboutSeow Yaohan

Seow Yao Han strives to bring you the latest and the most comprehensive information on cars available in Malaysia. But it's never easy for him to talk and write cars in this part of the world because what you lust after is often not what you drive home. When the euphoria of test-driving that branded, super-expensive sports car dies down, he just goes home in his less-than-glamorous ride.