Comments on: Detroit Electric to base electric cars on Proton cars?

By: topgunthang

topgunthang — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 18:47:45 +0000

because no one in the world has developed fuel cell conversion or add on kits yet. therefore proton or china cannot ‘develope’ fuel cell cars.

By: ezralimm

ezralimm — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 15:24:01 +0000

KelvC said, (June 27, 2008 @ 10:04 am)
Iâ€™ve just read the article a few times to understand the underlining meaning:
…
4. I would interpret this overall venture as Proton as having no direct involvement with DE.
5. Proton sells car to Youngman â€œcheap-cheapâ€ and Youngman sells back car on DE engine with handsome margin (sounds like Malaysiaâ€™s petrol scenario).
…
______________________________________________

Good distillation. Just note that point #5 above is pure speculation, conjecture and pseudo opinion. Even the reference to the petrol scenario is way off. In depth discussion/information here (http://forum.lowyat.net/topic/513136)

There is only one thing that i’d like to comment:

THESE CARS ARE _NOT_ PROTONS.

Proton may have licensed their designs / platform to Youngman, but the cars are basically not proton cars.

The Holden Barina is a rebadged Daewoo, and is essentially a Daewoo car.

The new Youngman/Zap electric vehicles probably have completely reworked drivetrains. They just used the proton shell and platform to save on development costs. Why reinvent the wheel when you have access to other suitable wheels?

By: munky

munky — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 14:05:47 +0000

why electric ? Isnt hydrogen (fuel cell) the better technology ?

By: topgunthang

topgunthang — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 08:38:11 +0000

if its so easy for a china company/malaysian company team up to do this, then merc, bmw, toyota and honda wouldnt need to waste so much effort in developing hybrids and hydrogen cars for so long. toyota and honda thailand can shut thier plants already.
but nevermind….alot of china people and malaysians are gullible. much like the legendary hydroxene debacle of which most malaysians have already forgotten. even the prime minister was ‘wowed’ by this technology and had to come show his face. turns out it was just a pyramid scheme or some show to siphon investors money if anyone was stupid enough to do that.

dont forget every car company in the world would already have some sort of blue print to install electric motors in the car. i beleive there are also some self install kits available to supplement current common cars if im not wrong was last years news. youngman and zap and proton problably just piggybacked on this idea and have the guts to call it thier ‘technology’.

By: king_jamez

king_jamez — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 07:14:06 +0000

it’s great that these electric motor concept came up but wit those price tag i would definitely think twice before buying…instead of saving money on petrol it burns a deep hole in our pocket to buy the car…btw y choose p1 as base??

By: xxrrxx2002

xxrrxx2002 — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 06:54:19 +0000

Yeah, when fully charged, the electric proton cars will zap all proton-bashers to smithereens! Oblivion! The best part is, all bashers have an iron rod stuffed inside their arse. No wonder the all incoherent bulls muttered by ‘em.

By: KelvC

KelvC — Fri, 27 Jun 2008 02:04:30 +0000

I’ve just read the article a few times to understand the underlining meaning:

1. The Detroit Electric (DE) co is a JV between ZAP and Chinaâ€™s Youngman.
2. Youngman is currently buying CBU Proton units (i.e. Savvy, Gen2, etc) with contractual plans to undertake CKD kits once the initial exploratory CBU units are sold into the Chinese market.
3. Since Youngman will be bringing in CKD units, Youngman could probably have an addendum to existing contract (if this is not already in the agreement) for Proton to make available chasis/body shell to Youngman via CKD. This body shell will then be fitted with DE’s electric engine.
4. I would interpret this overall venture as Proton as having no direct involvement with DE.
5. Proton sells car to Youngman “cheap-cheap” and Youngman sells back car on DE engine with handsome margin (sounds like Malaysia’s petrol scenario).
6. Proton sells green friendly engine to Malaysia and, in current petrol price with possible price spike, comes out like a national savior. Everybody wins…”hooray”.

By: Roti Naan

Roti Naan — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 17:19:28 +0000

if rain, it will go sot-sot…

By: claxxion

claxxion — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 13:51:00 +0000

I was wondering, how do we actually charge the car? Do we need an electric outlet outside the house? If it rains then what would happen? haha

By: mystvearn

mystvearn — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 12:15:44 +0000

If it works, Proton might bring back the technology and fit on their current cars and sell cheaper.
Another problem is how to balik kampung if you stay like 700 km away.Obviously need to find a hotel with plug ready. Just plug into hotel room, free fuel.haha

By: jolly_idiot

jolly_idiot — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 11:42:40 +0000

Will this means all it’s internal will not be by Proton anymore? If there’s a problem, should we bring it back to proton SC? Anyhow, it’s a great news since we are all moving towards electric car. But just wonder why is Proton? Just becoz if with proton can giv lower price?

Btw. The guy look like Hong Kong TVB actor Joe Ma. Haha

By: alihms

alihms — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 11:13:47 +0000

The effort by Youngman & Zap is good. But if you bother to do a little research on Zap, you’ll find the company is in suspect. Zap has been promising electric vehicles (ranging from tiny eco cars to fast supercars) since 2005 -but only manages to sell electric buggies. Even that is actually imported from China.

It has been making a lot of promises but delivers little. Zap financial bottomline isn’t that great either.

For more info.. see
http://www.wired.com/cars/futuretransport/magazine/16-04/ff_zapped?currentPage=1

So guys… don’t hope too much!!!

By: BW

BW — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 09:27:48 +0000

Lol actually i prefer reading updates on proton although i will bash them… just that i wanna see what our national car company gonna do….

By: elpaciko

elpaciko — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 08:02:59 +0000

i wonder.. do some of the guys here really read the article?… it seems as long as there is a proton name in the headline, there is this urge to bash at all cost.

By: BanyakMasukWorkshop

BanyakMasukWorkshop — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 07:40:32 +0000

sounds like a great idea if this is true. options are what us consumers need. the more options the better.

By: paxter

paxter — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 07:33:12 +0000

thats kinda cheap for an electric car… wish the g if they are truly sincere about saving cost from oil make hybrid and electric cars free from import duty…. oh wait a min…. FK! import hybrids and electric cars will never be free from import duty now…. proton will sell their own versions (would that make it a proton rebadged to DE then rebadge to proton?)

darn….

By: JULIANLEE2

JULIANLEE2 — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 07:04:10 +0000

this is worst than that stupid g-wiz

By: ganz

ganz — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 05:48:37 +0000

rotinan..

i don’t see any relationship between Proton and Detroit Electric on this..

moonier.. it look like transformer name already.. megatron,

By: gonggok

gonggok — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 05:48:03 +0000

Carmakers were always ready for electric cars – the batteries weren’t. Now thanks to the electronics industries – laptops, cellphones etc battery makers are spending tons of money on improving batteries. With the latest li-on batteries – the electric car in coming.

By: rsrulz

rsrulz — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 05:10:13 +0000

I think it is a good idea but why can”t they call the car Proton?

By: White Jack

White Jack — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 04:32:56 +0000

haaaa…now we talk serious about electric car. Over the years, car makers have been spending time and money on useless (or over ambitious) feautres, mostly found on expensive cars. Many automatics, sensors, bla bla bla in a car, to add up cost, and to attract buyers. Many are just gimmicks and useless features. Some even cause troubles and make the car auto shut down. You can see some nice expensive cars stopby roadside waiting for tow truck bec of that.

What I am trying to say.. dear car makers, spend you R&D on useful thing. Make electric car possible and economical. Should have started this seriously (I know Toyota, Honda started long time) on real mass production long time ago.

By: moonier

moonier — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 04:11:47 +0000

Detroit + Proton = Detron

By: Roti Naan

Roti Naan — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 04:11:30 +0000

hahahaa……Proton current technology is too wayward behind. Judging from their previous progress and development on their cars, I say this would take 10 years plus to make it a reality, if the idea didn’t fizzle out or some dumb politicians screw up the whole programme.

During the 10 years wait, my little boy-boy will aslo be in primary school in standard 6 oredi lor…..

By: moonier

moonier — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 04:10:25 +0000

Proton + Detroit = Petroit

By: Alifz

Alifz — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 03:52:28 +0000

I wonder how they going to reshape the gen-2 front…

By: raptorclans

raptorclans — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 02:12:32 +0000

this is wonderful news man… Paul, do keep us updated

By: rexis

rexis — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 01:56:01 +0000

220 hp electrical motor and 550 km range? And a charging time of 3.5-10 hours? At only RM145,599? Sound too good to be true at even half the performance figure and double the price!

If they can really make it a reality, they can technically start killing off petrol heads.

Without any specs or any blueprints to show off, but a rebadged gen2. Make it even less convincing. If they don’t even have any prototype now, do you believe they can go into production by end of next year?

By: proud2BMalaysian

proud2BMalaysian — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 01:47:57 +0000

it’s a good sign for proton, they are trusting proton’s chassis. we should give support to them. good or bad, the past is the past, we must look into the future of proton.

By: ganz

ganz — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 01:37:18 +0000

good move..

By: fighter_B2500

fighter_B2500 — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 01:34:40 +0000

long live proton! thats brialliant move! shift to next phase of technology is the best solution for fuel hike crisis.