Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Honda to build Jazz (Fit) Hybrid in Malaysia

During the grounds breaking ceremony that I attended last week, Honda made the announcement that they will be building the Jazz (Fit) Hybrid in Malaysia. This means Malaysia will be the 2nd country after the U.S. to build hybrid models outside of Japan. Production of the Jazz Hybrid will begin on the current "No. 1 Line" and work is going on to prepare the production line for the assembly of the model. Currently Jazz Hybrids sold in Malaysia are fully imported from Japan in what is called CBU or Completely Built Up form. 

The price of the Jazz Hybrid is fairly attractive at around RM95,000 and this local assembly promises to help keep the price at this level even when the special Malaysia tax exemption for hybrid cars expires at the end of next year (2013). It is however unlikely that the price for Malaysia will change even after the production has changed to local production, due to the need to protect the investments of customers who already owns the Jazz Hybrid. Of course this is just my own guess.

The Jazz Hybrid is fitted with the same powerplant and battery unit as the Insight, 1.3l IMA with around 100ps max power. The Malaysian units comes only with the CVT 7-speed.

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