Thirteen years ago, the government removed all taxes on hybrids and electric vehicles (EVs) as part of an effort to reduce Malaysia’s carbon footprint and also to try to attract carmakers to make Malaysia the ‘hybrid/EV hub’ of the region. That didn’t work as all it really did was to give a limited group of car-buyers a chance to get duty-free cars.

One company – Honda Malaysia – did follow up and assemble a hybrid model locally, receiving continued incentives for its initiative. However, the removal of the tax-free incentives after a few years saw interest in electrified vehicles lost as their prices became expensive again. Nevertheless, hybrids did start to appear though this was more to do with carmakers themselves switching to hybrid powertrains.

Last year, the government removed all taxes again – but only for battery electric vehicles (BEVs) and not hybrid models (assemblers still get incentives in other ways). The incentives have encouraged importation of many different BEV models, with new brands coming from China. Though the prices remain around RM150,000 (with the exception of the ORA Good Cat), there’s been good demand and for now, there are no units sitting in the stockyard waiting to be sold.