BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN
HSBC (B) Sdn Bhd yesterday purchased 13 units of Toyota Prius in a bid to reaffirm its commitment to environment protection.
The Toyota Prius is the first brand of hybrid vehicle introduced in Brunei Darussalam.
Tareq Muhmood, chief executive officer of HSBC, said, “The cars will be used by the managers, or if we have visitors, then the cars will be used.” The bank normally has 13 to 15 vehicles which are now old and will be replaced by the Prius.
“It is time to put our actions to where our words are, so we would like to encourage our customers to do the same,” he said, adding that the bank has introduced the lowest ever rates for car financing for anyone who wants to buy the Prius.
Tareq said that the reaction to the new hybrid vehicles would be interesting. “We’re just putting it out there so we want to see what the take-up is going to be like,” said Tareq.
Ninan Chacko, managing director of NBT (B) Sdn Bhd, exclusive distributor of Toyota in Brunei, said that HSBC would be “the trend-setter and that a lot of corporations will follow suit”.
“The whole world is talking about conservation, and naturally Brunei will get into this sooner rather than later. They cannot be different from the world,” said Chacko. He said the market, which had seen a slowdown in past months, would eventually start to pick up with getting hybrid vehicles, with a lot of support “possibly from the government”.
He added: There will be a lot of companies who want to make a statement but they cannot, so with this hybrid, I guess they will be able to do so,” he said.
On HSBC being the “trend-setter” for other companies, Chacko said, “They will think, if HSBC is doing it, then why not us?”.
The Toyota Prius, hybrid vehicle was launched yesterday at the Royal Brunei Polo and Riding Club, where the Minister of Energy, Pehin Orang Kaya Seri Dewa Major General (Rtd) Dato Seri Pahlawan Hj Mohammad Hj Daud, was guest of honour.
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