Proton and Hawtai expected to ink collaboration deal soon

Proton and Hawtai expected to ink collaboration deal soon

Reports indicate that Proton and Chinese carmaker Hawtai Automobile are expected to sign an official collaboration agreement before Chinese New Year at the earliest.

According to an unnamed Hawtai executive, discussions have already reached a much deeper state, and the exec added that the two sides have also explored plans to establish a new team of around 30 people in Beijing, with Hawtai planning to send nine other employees to Malaysia.

In October, at the China-ASEAN Business and Investment Summit in Nanning, Guangxi, Proton and Hawtai agreed on a potential collaboration, aiming to establish a technology site – with each having a 50% ownership share – to research and develop new models and key auto parts.

Besides R&D, the venture is also to focus on engineering and technology support, quality assurance work, supplier management and other basic tasks. Additionally, work on developing new vehicles, including new energy cars, is part of the agenda.

The reports state that domestic production of the Exora MPV and the upcoming P3-21A sedan – to be assembled at Ordos City, Inner Mongolia – will be the first order of business. The two companies are currently exploring ideas on how to lower costs to export the vehicles – which comply with Euro 5 emission standards – to Europe and other markets abroad.

The cooperation between Proton and Hawtai is to be carried out according to a new business model that won’t be limited to just Malaysia and China, but will include different markets from across the globe, acording to Hou Haijing, acting vice president and director of Hawtai’s automobile division. The two companies will use a global platform to develop new vehicle technology, procure auto parts and finally expand into new foreign markets, he added.

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Anthony Lim

Anthony Lim believes that nothing is better than a good smoke and a car with character, with good handling aspects being top of the prize heap. Having spent more than a decade and a half with an English tabloid daily never being able to grasp the meaning of brevity or being succinct, he wags his tail furiously at the idea of waffling - in greater detail - about cars and all their intrinsic peculiarities here.

 

Comments

  • Expatriate VN on Dec 30, 2011 at 10:30 am

    Countless MoU lor ……………………… new year 2012 resolution for P1 is more MoU ……..

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  • picang on Dec 30, 2011 at 10:31 am

    Malaysia + China = Kearah kuasa dunia!

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  • albag on Dec 30, 2011 at 10:34 am

    proton – now developed in china… buy?

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  • jimmyc on Dec 30, 2011 at 10:37 am

    finally its the chinese who will teach proton some business sense.

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    • rally_fan on Dec 30, 2011 at 12:15 pm

      jimmyc, its 50/50 biz.. its not just hawtai teaching proton, but proton teaching hawtai. in the mechanics of this deal, both will need each other to fight the bigger boys.. dont just look at it with such a narrow minded point of view.

      sharing an R&D centre to work on stuff that both companies can use will greatly reduce costs. also.. this will give greater economies of scale.

      all the big boys do it.. so it makes sense for the smaller players to get in on the programme as well.

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  • maman on Dec 30, 2011 at 10:53 am

    the two cars comply with euro 5 emission std eh? interesting…

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    • Expatriate VN on Dec 30, 2011 at 11:28 am

      If comply Euro 5 emission, it is for Euro market, not Bolehland or Dragonland market.

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      • rally_fan on Dec 30, 2011 at 12:18 pm

        cars can be tuned and modified to suit different markets and different fuel types.. if you sell in europe, you run euro5, if you sell in malaysia, you can do euro 3 or whatever..

        im sure you knew that right?

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  • sawi cool on Dec 30, 2011 at 11:28 am

    it’s always a good move to penetrate China market, though it’s a bit late.
    China has a huge potential, and have a strong voice in BRIC bloc.

    P1 has a pretty decent products, and if they can sell more volume, they can invest more in R&D.

    Good luck Proton!

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    • Oopus on Dec 30, 2011 at 12:35 pm

      Too eary to be excited, no? Still rember the collaboration between Proton and Youngman (which is much better branded than Hawtai and also has more influential), their sales are pathetic and slumped day by day and even today you can’t see any their cars in Chinese cities.

      How about this time? The crappy Proton + crappy Hawtai (AFAIK, Hawtai is the worst of automaker of China ) = their future is out on a limb!

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      • sawi cool on Dec 30, 2011 at 3:20 pm

        I went to China couple of times, I did see few Gen2…

        Well, chinese market is super big.
        Above deal is for Exora (a matured product – if we take into account Exora Bold), and the much anticipated P3-21A.

        Just imagine if they can have 0.1% part.

        And Chinese automakers are improving nowadays (well, they got money and cheap labor) and regulations are against foreign makers.

        This deal has a great potential, at least on paper.
        Being Malaysian, i wish the best for Proton.

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        • stop dreaming on Dec 30, 2011 at 8:49 pm

          you must be very lucky, i bet there are less than 50,000 Youngman Lotus sold in China since Proton enter their market for 3 years.

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          • Domyfavor on Dec 31, 2011 at 6:48 am

            Yea
            The first year, 1000 + units per month
            Now, several hundred units per month
            Do the math, the overal sale figures are less then 50.000 over 3 years

            Even commerical says it’s engined by Lotus

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  • buboy on Dec 30, 2011 at 11:37 am

    dengan Cina, Malaysia Baru Boleh…..

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    • pak hensem on Dec 30, 2011 at 12:07 pm

      kita tidak boleh bodoh sombong untuk berjaya..malaysia bolehlah!

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  • kereta lembu on Dec 30, 2011 at 1:05 pm

    And you thought things couldn’t get any worse…then this news comes along. How interesting!

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  • FAW =”Let’s Oley”, HAWTAI + Proton = “Let’s Boleh”

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  • azrai on Dec 30, 2011 at 2:29 pm

    “… production of the Exora MPV and the upcoming P3-21A sedan – to be assembled at Ordos City, Inner Mongolia.”

    Mongolia? I wonder they use Razak Baginda’s “middle man” consultant firm for this.

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  • proton sign with who will also collapse 1 la…useless crap..better close this company

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  • makeitmine on Dec 30, 2011 at 9:48 pm

    Hawtai has purchased technology from Italian diesel experts VM Motori. Now with collaboration with Lotus/Proton, the technology will also be useful for Proton/Lotus and India market.

    Saab sells 30% to Hawtai. But General Motors has made it quite clear that any offers from China will be denied for fears of reverse engineering patents.

    Now Proton should sieze the opportunity to let General Motors the opportunity to buy a stake in Proton through Lotus in return for a stake in Saab. This will also create business opportunities for Lotus/GM.

    Moreover, Proton can also play a role for General Motors (Asia) in handling Hawtai in Saab.

    Saab will be a good buy for Proton for reason that Omnivore engine was developed by Lotus.

    The Omnivore is an advanced two-stroke engine that can run on bio-fuels. It also happens to be a clean-burning, thanks to technology like direct injection, which gives it the classic two-stroke power advantage but without the horrible emissions problem that caused them to disappear in many vehicle applications.

    If Saab is purchased by Proton, it will help Saab return it to its roots, use the Omnivore engine as a basis for a compact car (something that Saab planned a few years ago) and bring back the two-stroke into the modern automotive world. This could also help Saab regain some market share by being quirky enough to stand out from the crowd.

    Two-stroke engines powered Saab’s earliest cars and helped the company achieve an image of high-revving, fun to drive family cars. It also proved to be a boon to rally-drivers, and these early Saabs quickly became rally-car legends.

    http://www.carnewser.com/news/1070848_opinion-the-reason-why-proton-should-buy-saab

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    • oomph on Dec 31, 2011 at 3:27 pm

      proton barely survives…do you want gomen to give rakyat money so that proton could buy saab?

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      • makeitmine on Dec 31, 2011 at 7:53 pm

        Friend, you think small..the article is written by a foreigner and obviously there is a party with intention to buy Lotus/Proton.

        Khazanah will sell Proton and it will not involve any rakyat money anymore. Proton is more useful to GM than VW.

        If Omnivore engine technology is exchanged with GM for some other technology for Proton, and Lotus works for GM, it is still a profitable venture.

        GM vetoed the takeover of Saab to Chinese corporations Youngman and Pang Da citing key technology licenses issue.But I guess GM would not mind Proton/Hawtai in Saab since Hawtai is using SAIC engines and GM partners with SAIC.

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  • ridger on Dec 31, 2011 at 1:54 am

    The biscuit company??

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    • pelams on Dec 31, 2011 at 4:56 pm

      nope….the tainted milk company

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      • buatkereta on Dec 31, 2011 at 10:45 pm

        Even you like or not, PROTON is expending…
        Challenge to be better

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        • alfred tian on Jan 01, 2012 at 7:00 pm

          on dec 29, china release a new regulation to disencourage foreign investment on vehicle production, which means that it will be more difficult to approve new vehicle jv. hawtai, a weaker and small private automaker, doesnot have the influence as big state-owned auto groups like SAIC or FAW. also it has a bad name within industry due to its fake report on its sales last year. so slim chance or no good future for their jv.

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        • alfred tian on Jan 01, 2012 at 7:04 pm

          proton

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  • tadasu on Jan 01, 2012 at 6:16 pm

    classic example of negative negative does not equal positive

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  • i guess there will be bright future for proton. BUT, what will we as consumer get? still hoping proton to build better quality car for local market.

    p/s: hawtai logo is toyota + honda logo combination. oh chinese…….

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