In a past article, I pondered when Malaysia would start promoting the use of hybrid vehicles, both on supporting the green movement, and on reducing fuel consumption cost. I suppose that back in the RM1.92/liter era, the savings on money did not seem to pan out.
Welcome to the RM2.70/l era (and increasing). Now, how does that hybrid engine look to you? Is it more sexier (and sensible) engineering?
At the moment, there is a rush to install LNG converters, as the price of LNG has not gone up yet, but believe me it will. The converters costs between RM2k to RM3.5k.
The articles here and here discuss some efforts in promoting hybrid cars in Malaysia. Proton’s last public venture into the field was the EVE hybrid.
Be a geek, love the engineering, go hybrid.
Wata - Malaysian Oil and Gas Engineer 
[…] unknown wrote an interesting post today onHere’s a quick excerptThe converters costs between RM2k to RM3.5k. The articles here and here discuss some efforts in promoting hybrid cars in Malaysia. Proton’s last public venture into the field was the EVE hybrid. Be a geek, love the engineering, go hybrid. […]
liked your ending quote…but if the objective is to go hybrid, we don’t need to be a geek nor an engineer…although, people in those two former categories will be more inclined to the concept of hybrid cars
I would say that in Malaysia, hybrid is a bleeding edge technology, which needs the support and money of the two groups, before prices drop as economies of scale kick in, though tax really needs to go down.
I think that hybrid cars need some support from the automotive companies and the government because of the benefits that they can give to our environment.
The first barrier is definitely the tax imposed. Once tax is reduced, more companies will be driven to promote hybrid cars in Malaysia and as demand picks up, sales increases….yeah, economies of scale will definitely help. But what effect would that have on Proton? Lower demand for Proton makes it not sustainable; hence government might not be that keen yet!
Jabba has a new idea. everyone is talking about hybrid car and NGV.
Let me see, if i get it right….. a NGV (natural gas vehicle) would cost say RM5 for a full tank? why does Jabba needs to pay RM16 for a full tank of cooking gas (to fuel my flamethrower). Can I fill the cooking gas tank for RM3 and use it in the kitchen instead?
Makes me think, whether are they the same, and would gas price increase after everyone converts to NGV.
Jabba ends this with a “cooking is more expensive than driving”
Hah, you need to attend my talks at the IEM to figure out the difference. Will that be a party of one, or one Tatooine sail barge?
The launching of hybrid cars officially and commercially in Malaysia for now, in my view, is actually taking a gun and shooting at our own toes. We have a national manufacturer for automobiles, whose current models runs on petrol and diesel. If there were to a replacement/substitute in a form of hybrid technology, consumers’ ideas will turn to these (hybrid technology), which directly affect sales of these cars. This entity serves to be a major contributor to our country’s economy. Even if we have hybrid cars in Malaysia, imagine the huge amount of money we have to invest to equip existing petrol stations with hybrid ‘refueling’ infrastructures. Plus, stakeholders of this national producer might have connections or backgrounds close to our government decision making units, which is why I believe, we Malaysians are always so slow to take the best steps for the people. Situations are complex and decisions made are always implemented half heartedly. I conclude with the fact that for a hybrid car to operate in Malaysia, it involves a huge amount of immediate cost, and it affects the nation as a whole due to different interests of different stakeholders within the main decision makers. Somehow, I hope you get the idea of my views, cheers!
HYBRID? What is hybrid??…..
A lot of people have the wrong understand that a hybrid car needs to find some power source (at petrol kiosk) to charge the car.
Please do more research. Although Hybrid car uses petrol and batteries, the charging of battery is internal to the car, no need to charge from outside source. The battery will be charged at various points; during braking, during petrol engine operated.
SO, a hybrid car is NOT an electric car, which needs to be charged through a power source set up at a petrol station. A hybrid car is still a petrol fuelled car. It can save more than 20% petrol and is greener, that is less CO produced.