The 1Malaysia government is expected to adjust the fuel price of RON95 to RM1.90 per litre and RM1.80 per litre for diesel along with the roll out of new fuel price mechanism which will be reveal in mid of March. That is RM0.10 increase per litre respectively.

The current price of RON95 fuel is at RM1.80 per litre and as for diesel it’s at RM1.70.

The price of RON97 it’s at RM2.05 but however there is no decision yet on the increase of price for RON97 fuel.

The Finance Ministry of 1Malaysia said that the government cannot provide more subsidy because of a spike in global crude oil price. Which is right now, as i write this article it’s USD 80.18 per barrel.

The government believe that increase of RM0.10 it’s acceptable to all automotive users.

BMW has release a free application that can measure your car and your driving performance – BMW M Power Meter. Based on the Apple iPhone 3Gs, *sorry for the others iphones* BMW has make use of the built-in accelerometer in the iphone that does a good job in motion sensor. Those who are into this has probably come across similar application like this but with a cost from Apple Appstore.

In general, this application allows users to measure the g-force and 0-100 times from their iphones. The BMW M Power Meter does most of the paid application do. In fact, in my opinion it is quite complete. Just dock the iphone in your M-car, hit start and you’re good to go. Kids, please do not hold the iphone and drive with 1 hand.The BMW M Power Meter defaults the timing from 0-50 km/h, but you can change that by clicking on settings and choosing from several acceleration options up to 200 km/h or distances ranging from 100 meters to 2,000 meters. Continue Reading the BMW M Power Meter

After revealed Malaysia Budget 2010 on last Friday. Yesterday, MITI revealed it’s revised of National Automotive Policy (NAP). The revision of NAP has addressed most of its business opportunity, bumiputera privilege, protection, proton, surprises and policy that might attract to foreign investor in Automobile industry to Malaysia.

Basically, there aren’t any changes to the structure of neither import duty nor excise duty in Malaysia (except duty-free area like Langkawi and Labuan). From us, it will be a go ahead and buy whatever car that you like since everything virtually remained or even no good.

Down to the highlights of the new revision of NAP, as a chief editor of Fastmotoring.com and readers of my personal blog. I would like to pin point a few of my comments to our fellows’ automotive fans and owners.

Open AP – In this review, the current government have taken a good move and step to counter those dishonour Open AP holders that under-declare the value of the used vehicles that imported to Malaysia and making profits out from consumers. On the down side, the open AP announced to be stepped by 31st Dec 2015 and a large chunk of the RM300 million expected to be collected from the RM10,000 per Open AP fee. Which the fund will be used to develop the auto industry and further increase Bumiputra entrepreneurship participation in the auto industry.

Gradual introduction of Vehicle End of Life Policy – The current government stated that the vehicles that above 15 years will required performing inspection during renewal of road tax to ensure road worthiness. On this clause, the most important thing that addressing is road safety and emission. In the other words, the government wants the vehicles to upkeep to fit to be on the road and reducing CO2 emissions which is not a really bad thing.

Import of used parts/components - By June 2011, vehicle half-cut, second hand parts/components and reconditioned will be prohibited from importation to Malaysia. For this clause, I will this relates to the current Prime Minister move on Budget 2010 which so called ‘high-income’ country. Mainly, this helps to boost the sales of local parts vendors and authorised service dealer with new parts which is not good news for car owners. From what I can forecast, the business of used car parts will be sunset unless they starts to scrap local cars by turning to be the source of used parts instead of import from Japan, Singapore or Europe.

Again for the ‘malaysia baby’ proton – Well again, the entire revision mainly designed to preserving low-mid market segment to stick with Proton which making an illusion of automotive eco-system. From the policy of introduction of Vehicle End of Life Policy, phasing out of imported used parts and components are mainly pinned point the owners of national car. In the other hand, I can’t deny that most of us may have experience of getting used car parts. Since there isn’t any supplies of used parts in very near future, I will foreseeing Proton will triple on their sales forecast for minor cases with replacement parts and expect new car order for major cases from the consumers.

Reconditioned Used Car - For fellow readers that is unsure about the rules of importation of used car to Malaysia. The cars have to be less than 5 years old when the car reaches Port. For the Vehicle End of Life Policy, I foreseeing there isn’t any impact since normally we won’t own the same car for more than 10 years. For the new banned on imported used parts that will be introduce, it won’t affect much too as for example, Toyota Vellfire owners will not go for used parts for their luxury ride and of course same goes to Ferrari, Aston Martin, Audi, Porsche, Lexus and etc… Moreover, there are many parallel new genuine parts importer in the market to supply the demand of parts of imported cars.

Imports of used cars are very common in other developed countries like Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong and United Kingdom. Mainly, car models that are dedicated for Japanese Domestic Market are very popular and demanding. With the chances of demolishment of Open AP and no conflict of interest against the National Car. From my wild opinion, I will be pleased that the current government will consider opening the market for certain car models that is not available in Malaysia automotive industry. Think! Do you want a Nissan GTR?

Pros and Cons of these policy revisions – To make things sexier, I got a very simple question, are all Malaysian ready and accept all this preservation? For the mid-high market segment, I reckon there won’t be much impact comparing to the low-mid market segment. It just matter of the limited choice of cars that they can choose from the rack. In other hand, what will happen to the low-mid market? Are they keep repairing cars with new parts, send cars for inspection every year after their cars aged 15 and above or even work harder to depreciate their car value?

Writer: Edvin Teo – 29 Oct 2009

Below are the highlights of the new National Automotive Policy announced on Wednesday, Oct 28, 2009

1. Local assembly of luxury passenger above 1,800cc and priced above RM150,000 on-the-road fully liberalised. Foreigners can own 100% of assembly operations.

2. APs to be stopped by Dec 2015.Audit on AP recipients ongoing and checks to be done. Those flouting will be removed from list.

3. Gradual introduction of Vehicle End of Life Policy. For starters vehicles above 15 yrs will have to undergo mandatory inspection during renewal of road tax.

4. Import Duty structure maintained at 0% for CKD and 5% for CBU for AFTA.

5. Excise duty structure remains. No changes.

6. All imported used vehicles prices will be gazetted to prevent under-declaration.

7. Manufacturing of critical components for cars such as brake system and transmission to get incentives such as Pioneer Status/Investment Tax Allowance.

8. The import of used parts/components will be prohibited from June 2011.

9. Proton to establish strategic partnership with global OEM.

10. The current policy on the freeze of manufacturing licence for reconditioning and reassembling (rebuilt) activities is maintained.

Written by The Edge FinancialDaily

Click here to read the statement issued by the Ministry of International Trade and Industry

NEW UPDATE!! Highlights of the new National Automotive Policy announced on Wednesday, Oct 28, 2009. Click Here!!

NEW UPDATE 2 !!  Malaysia National Automotive Policy (NAP) 2010 Review by Fastmotoring.com . Click Here!!

The Malaysia Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI) will be releasing the review of National Automotive Policy by October 2009. We will be expecting some drastic changes as compare to the current automotive industry of Malaysia.

We would be expecting the new policy would benefits automakers to establish manufacturing & assembly facilities and it might include steps to impove and assist the automotive component industry.There could be incentives or benefits would likely to be given to companies to manufacture green, eco-friendly vehicles.Representiative of International Trade and Industry Ministry mentioned last month in a statement that the review of the NAP would concertrate to ensure orderly development of the local automotive industry.The new NAP review which will be released next month is hoped to create a attractive investment environment for new investments and expansion of existing investments.Malaysia Government would like to take this chance to enhance the usage of the new technologies for the local automotive industry and at the same time increase bumiputra participation in the sector.

The industry players said that the new policy will take away the national and non-national car markers. Hence, auto companies could be catergorized as local or non-local companies. A local automotive company would mean one of the manufacturer regardless of ownership origin. Companies who wish to set up manfacturing or assembly plant would be granted licences more easily as a step to encourage investment.As a step to assist the vehicle components companies, there will be steps to encourage geunie parts. Standards will be enforced on vehicle, to promote low emission vehicle.All incentives could attract automakers to locate their green car project in Malaysia instead of Thailand.

The review was as it was so timely consumed is to moniter sector’s progress and come out with incentives that would have the industry grow further. The review has been taken account to refer and compare the various automotive policy worldwide.It is expected that the new NAP would provide a transparent framework in this industry.As Malayisa is the only Asean country with a national car manufacturer and Proton’s R&D centre, including the crash test course, was on par with international standards. It will definately would be a plus point if goverment would be able to make use of it for industry.Even if this NAP takes effect it will take a while to have an effect on the sector but in order to suceed, the government need to look into export markets as well.

Back in 2006, NAP has reduced import taxes on most imported vehicles and lowered car prices as one of the attempt to make the country a regional automotive hub, although there’s still a long way to go. There’s also been widely debated critics that there could still certain policy to protect Proton and Perodua.Nevertheless most of the Malaysian would like to see how the government address the issue of AP (Approved permits), and hopefully a cheaper price tag on vehicles.

Since 1st September 2009, Malaysia have replaced the RON92 Unleaded with RON95 Unleaded. In the other hand, the RON97 Unleaded has been logically upgraded to be Premium Unleaded in Malaysia domestic market.

In fact, a lot of cars in Malaysia are compatible with RON95 Unleaded Fuel. High Octane Premium Unleaded is normally required for high compression ratio engine which is normally found on the performance models. Majority of engine have knock sensors which can automatically adjust the ignition timing once knocking is detected. But of course, the power output of the engine will be degraded once engine knocking is detected which normally due to lower grade unleaded fuel.

Cars from the official distributor that required Premium Unleaded are like Honda Civic Type R [Refer to: Is RON95 suitable for high compression engine or your car?] and Suzuki Swift Sport. For private imported cars are like Nissan GT-R, Nissan Silvia, Nissan Skyline GT-R, Toyota Wish 2.0 D4, Toyota Caldina, Subaru Impreza WRX STI and etc… Normally, the Japan imports cars required Premium Unleaded because those JDM cars are tuned based on their domestic fuel grade for optimum performance and efficiency. The premium grade for unleaded is RON100 in Japan.

However, the european cars like Mercedes-Benz, BMW, VW, Audi or even Alfa Romeo may not required RON97 fuels to operate at optimum level. Mainly, this is due to their country fuel grade availability for Premium Unleaded is just RON95 or RON98 and the consideration of the availability of premium unleaded fuel of other country that they are distributing to.

Anyway, our team have compiled a list of cars that is compatible with RON95 from official distributor, importer and data sheet that we able to obtain from the internet. For the car models that is not listed in our table, kindly contact the manufacturer of your car for more information or check your car booklet for the recommended fuel grade.

 Click here to view the RON Compatible List for the cars that official distributed in Malaysia

The BN Government in Malaysia has just announced the new prices of petrol in Malaysia effective 1st September 2009 and we are looking at RM1.80 per liter for RON95 now, which was what RON97 was previously priced at. This is up from RM1.75 per liter pre-September 2009. As for RON97, it has been hiked to RM2.05 per liter. 

From Honda official, all Honda cars from Honda Malaysia Sdn Bhd are compatible with RON95. Yes, even the Civic Type R, with a catch of course. But the Civic Type R is a high performance, high-revving sedan, how can this be? Let’s take a look at what RON95 and RON97 actually are to have a better understanding of petrol octane.

RON stands for Research Octane Number, a rating used to measure a fuel’s knock resistance in spark-ignition internal combustion engines. What exactly is ‘knocking’ and why must a fuel resist it?

For the entire engine, the combustion chamber is the hottest part of the engine. Combustion explosions can happen a few hundreds or thousands times a second. If an engine is sometimes tuned too aggressively, the engine may ‘knock’. Knocking is what happens when arts or all of the air-fuel mixture prematurely ignites before the flame from the spark plug can reach it.

When this happens, it causes a decrease in performance. Also, the engine has no way of predicting or controlling how this rogue flame behaves so it might damage your engine. Basically knock resistance is a measurement of how likely it is your fuel can withstand self-ignition.

It is a in-correct to think that RON97 petrol are able to produce more power than RON92. In fact that a higher RON number actually means the fuel combusts less easily! If you engine does not require RON97 and can work on RON95, pumping RON97 will likely only result in a waste.

If you’ve been able to sense a difference between RON97 petrol and RON92 petrol in the past it could be because of a significantly different additive packages added to each type of petrol by the fuel company. Look for companies that claim the same additive package or mix added to each octane grade they sell for similiar performance between octane grades.

Now back to the FD2 Civic Type R. All Honda engines and other manufacturers engine build have a device called a “Knock Sensor” which can detect knocking and automatically adjust the engine’s spark timing to prevent engine knocking. The Type R’s engine was designed and tuned for RON100 fuel in Japan in order to get the maximum horsepower of 225ps but since it has a knock sensor it can work on RON97 fuel. It can run on RON95 too, however performance and fuel consumption will be affected, so it’s best to feed it with the highest octane fuel you can find. Therefore, we strongly recommends RON97 fuel for the Civic Type R and other car that having high compression engines.

Effective from 1st September 2009 (right after the Malaysia National Day), the newly introduced RON 95 fuel is now priced at RM1.80 from the previous price - RM1.75. Meanwhile, RON 97 is upgraded as a premium product and has gone up to RM2.05 from RM1.80.

DRB-Hicom Bhd’s negotiation with Volkswagen AG to assemble its cars in Malaysia is scrapped. From The Edge Weekly, the sources say talks between the two companies hit a brick wall following interference from certain government-linked bodies that forced the diversified group to cease discussions with VW.

According to DRB-Hicom officials, it is confirmed that there was difficulty in the negotiations, saying this occurred about three weeks ago but no further elaboration on the details. At Press time, DRB-Hicom did not clearly stating what are the government’s intentions were or why DRB-Hicom’s plan is scrapped off.

We believed that in recent months, Proton’s management has been leaning towards collaborating with a foreign partner on its operations in Malaysia and also with Lotus plc. It is not known if the scuttled talks have anything to do with Proton’s plan to getting a foreign strategic partner. Proton and VW have been engaged in talks on forming a strategic partnership and possible equity participation by VW since 2004 but no deal has materialised till date.

Recently reported from the Reuters news, the China’s Tengzhong will maintain Hummer’s auto dealership network if it succeeds in purchasing the U.S. brand, amid growing sentiment that it may complete the controversial deal.

According to Tengzhong spokesperson statement, there will be no change in Hummer’s existing global sales network and the quality of its after sales services after the completion of the deal.

Doubts about Tengzhong’s lack of experience in the car industry had been swirling and the gas-guzzling nature of the U.S. SUV was also cited by state media as reasons for expected opposition from the Chinese government. However, the opposing voices have quietened down in recent weeks after China’s commerce ministry sounded a more positive note on the deal, saying Tengzhong’s move was normal for a company seeking to take advantage of the global downturn.

“Market sentiment on the Hummer has turned more positive lately as industry insiders and media come back to their senses from the initial shock,” said Chen Qiaoning, an analyst with ABN AMRO TEDA Fund Management. Furthermore, Chen added that the China government has little to lose giving the greenlight. Tengzhong is a privately-owned company and the Hummer deal won’t cost any state money.

However, Tengzhong still expects the deal to be completed in the third quarter this year, which media reports have priced at between $150 million to $200 million, much less than the $500 million that GM had sought last year.