Last month, Proton and Suzuki signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) and Licence Agremeent (LA) that, amongst other things, gives the national carmaker access to Suzuki’s models, platforms, powertrain and automotive technology, with the Japanese company providing technical assistance for the products and scope selected.
The LA grants Proton the rights to CKD manufacture and sell a Suzuki model under its own brand, and numerous mentions of “small, compact cars” and smaller engine segment vehicles” fuels speculation that Proton wants to develop its first A-segment city car to challenge Perodua’s hot-selling Axia.
In a StarBizWeek interview with Proton chairman Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad and Proton CEO Datuk Abdul Harith Abdullah published over the weekend, it was pointed out that Proton is seeking to manufacture between 60,000 and 100,000 Suzuki cars for both the local market and exports.
This, it was pointed out, will help fill Proton’s excess capacity. Both its Shah Alam and Tanjung Malim (pic below) plants have a combined capacity of 370,000 units. The company produced around 120k cars last year.
“We need to fill that up otherwise cost will become very high. Filling up our current capacity in the next three to five years is a must. The total number people directly related to Proton is 77,000. We have to do everything within our ability to be successful,” Harith said.
For those questioning the size of Proton’s latest partner, Harith has this to say. “Suzuki is not small. They produce three million cars a year and have been number three in Japan for seven consecutive years, after Toyota and Honda. They have chosen a different path, going into developing countries instead of developed countries. They are big in India, producing 1.2 million cars and 800,000 cars in Japan.
“To be successful, you must have a high level of cost effectiveness and this is what we want to learn. This is part of the journey for Proton to decide where it wants to be,” he said.
His chairman elaborated on the choice of Suzuki as partner. “We need technology partners which are suitable for us. We don’t want technology partners who may practically take over the company. This is a very Malaysian company,” Tun Mahathir stressed.
“I think Suzuki will be providing certain technologies that Proton does not have now. We need to have some expertise with regards to smaller cars. We are not thinking just about the Malaysian market or competing with Perodua. We want to produce Malaysian cars which can be exported.
“It will not be a pure Suzuki car. Components or parts may come from Suzuki, but we will build and design our own car which will be sold in Malaysia and also foreign markets. So, we are not directly competing with Perodua,” he added.
Proton-Suzuki vs Perodua-Daihatsu sounds like a proxy war between two compact car experts, and Proton will need to claw back some ground from P2, which has plenty of momentum from the Axia and Myvi facelift, but Harith is adopting a non-confrontational tone. He says that just having the same 30% market share as Perodua is good enough. “Put pride aside, that can come later,” he said.
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I wish for the best to Proton.
Proton 5S lifestyle:
1. Sendiri Cakap
2. Sendiri Syok
3. Sentiasa Rosak
4. Siapa pun Tak Minat
5. Suzuki Rebadged
You sound like old cassette that noone uses it today.
It is solely because of Proton and Tun M that 30 million people in Malaysia suffer. Everybody’s biggest payment per month is their cars as we are paying overpriced cars. 30 years, Proton rogol all of us.
You see, in the 80s or even in the early 90s, you can get a brand new Nissan 130Y or a Toyota Corolla for RM20,000. Now, the same car is RM139,000.
In truth, the past 30 years, car prices have come down a lot globally and have NOT gone up due to inflation. It has come down due to economies of scale achieved by car companies. This is proven by the fact that you can get a brand new purely Japan made top spec 10 airbag Toyota Camry 2.5 in the US for US$22,000. That is about RM60,000. The normal B segment car like the Almera is sold in the US for US$9,999. (RM30,000). Mind you, this is after Toyota and Nissan of the US has made their margin and profits and the US government has collected taxes and duties from Nissan and Toyota. The direct from factory prices is far cheaper. UMW will get the above 2.5 Camry for US$15,000 from their principal in Japan. As our Camry is CKD, the price is even lower than that.
Our cars compared to global cars are completely stripped down. Even basic car in the US got about 20 safety features that the same car in Malaysia does not have. Purposely taken out to cut cost even further and untung more profit.
So, in actual fact, most Malaysians can enjoy cheap and reasonable cars but because of Proton, all the other car prices have been raised up tremendously to protect Proton. Malaysians have already suffered so much. For 30 years, 30 million people suffer so much. We struggle paying for our high car prices all because of one man’s dream of benefiting his friends and relatives and forcing the dying Proton to live with billions of our LHDN money, money which could be used to build more schools and hospitals.
If we did not have Proton sucking money from LHDN, each state can have an addition 10 fully fledged government hospitals and 10 fully fledged government schools every 10 years being built. But all our LHDN money go to the failing Proton. Every year government gives hundreds of million to Proton as form of grants. Every other year, Proton ask RM billions in help. Recently, even under private hands also (DRB) Proton asked the government to give them free few RM billions from LHDN.
Proton also cost us hundreds of billions in ringgit in investments from car companies who moved to Thailand and Indonesia. Car companies got fed up with Malaysia’s MITI for protecting Proton and telling other companies what to price their cars. They got sick and tired of the AP system and how genuine brands cannot get enough APs to import their cars in (like Mercedes, BMW and Honda).
They thought that if they set up their brands and plants in Malaysia, they knew they had to give 30% of their hard earned company free away as well as being told by MITI what to price their cars. They all moved their operations to Thailand making it the AutoCity of the world.
Recently GM announced that they rolled out already 1 million cars from Thailand. Imagine if GM was in Malaysia and we taxed GM RM10,000 per car. Calculate that with 1 million cars. Just from GM alone, we lost Billions in USD. Imagine what will the amount be from other car companies if they had set up in Malaysia?
Because of Proton, we lost hundreds of billion of ringgit in investment and trillions of ringgit from jobs lost. If Malaysia was the autocity of Asia, hundreds of thousands of jobs would have been created for Malaysians. We lost all that. Trillions of Ringgit and hundreds of thousands of jobs. Now, Thailand is benefiting from this trillions lost.
Car companies are flocking to invest hundreds of billions in Thailand despite Thailand being an unstable government, unstable economy and full of bomb blastings and terror.
Yet, global car companies still prefer Thailand. This is another rape like when Mitsubishi raped us for 20 years with low quality engines and parts. If Proton was not in Malaysia in the first place, you will have a few hundred thousand ringgit extra in your pocket!
Who cares the nation has more income or ppl have better life?
It is all about cronies getting their McLaren and wiring billions around the world.
Don’t be naive. For the cronies, we are just minions generating their super cars.
Still cannot beat moving coffins.drom o2 and toyota that’s real uncare for people. Only go for money.
Me Too
You see Proton is actually a good concept. But when Mahathir created Proton, he made sure every single part of the Proton car is supplied by his crony buddies. Now Suzuki will be the same.
And these crony buddies overcharge Proton by ten times whilst giving poor and inferior parts. That is why your Proton always falls apart and everybody blames quality control. That is the reason also why Proton makes only RM500 per car that they sell. It is solely because of the crony vendors who are overcharging Proton. For example, per car Mat is sold to Proton for RM100 whilst you can buy the same car mat from brothers for RM10.
So, Mahathir can say all he wants about quality being raised and his sarcasm but until ALL Proton’s vendors are changed, how can the quality go up?
Mahathir won’t do this. All his buddies have got the contract to be vendors to Proton. Mahathir will just ensure that all the vendors for Proton remain the same. All his buddies and relatives, so why upset his relatives when he can continue his past misgivings?
Proton will still get the same low inferior quality parts it has been getting for the past 30 years and it will still be overcharged by 10 times for each part the vendors supply.
Malaysians have already suffered so much. For 30 years, 30 million people suffer so much. We struggle paying for our high car prices all because of one man’s dream of benefitting his buddies and friends. Until Proton changes ALL their vendors, Proton will be a loss making organisation because it produces super low quality cars due to its vendors supplying Proton Super low Quality parts.
This Suzuki scandal will be the same as Mitsubishi scandal. Until vendors change, tie up with Suzuki will be low in quality as previous Protons.
No free lunch.
Make sure you get what you want.
Make sure the deal is rewarding for the effort and hardship.
All the best to Proton to continue screwing the people
All the best to p2 and Toyota to continue offering moving coffin to people
Bad Fengshui at Proton factory:
– a small river outflow just next to the factory
– it symbolise leakage (money outflow)
– explains why Proton keep bleeding loss and constant failure
How to solve it? Either:
– relocate factory
– realign/divert river outflow to other direction
– totally landfill the emptied river (after river divert off)
No point to rebadge hatchback, most of the people choose Axia and Myvi not because of hatchback, is because they don’t want Proton, and Perodua have no sedan, they have no other choice.
Please Rebadge Suzuki Ciaz and sell it with the price of Saga SV, sure Proton will gain back the top sales.
I pity the fools who has bought Iriz…obviously, can’t sell, now they rebadge Suzuki cars….Suzuki owners pissed, Iriz owners pissed. Proton winrar for pissing off everyone. Good job!!!
So you suggest people to go for moving coffin?
Irizx is a fool commenter here.
He is a neglected kid, later he will say that he owns sport cars
The number of Iriz on road are way many than “new” Myvi
Better than those stupid ppl bought coffin car likes Axia, Myvi n Vios.
That’s not what the rakyat wanted.
We want Proton to CLOSE SHOP so that rakyat won’t be deprived of good quality cars at affordable price without your Proton protection taxes. I’m spelling it for you.
C-L-0-S-E S-H-O-P
If P1 close shop and the tax structure remain, we will still pay high prices for cars.
Tax free also we will pay high for vehicles, because of greed.
One of the ways is to give incentive, with terms and conditions, to luxurious brands so that a C180 will be priced at RM150k, and A180 at RM98 888. If your Vios is RM88 888, nobody wants to buy.
Good competition under government guidance.
It is difficult to ignore friendships.
If you care to step out of your blind hatred box and have a good look at out NAP policies for the last few years, you will find almost none of the policies / incentives benefited PROTON…. lots of policies and incentives gives benefit to foreign manufacturers to set up their CKD plants here or bring in fuel efficient cars or hybrid/electric cars…. yet you hardly seen prices of cars from these manufacturers drop…. Surely this is not PROTON faults…. it’s just down to the greediness of the distributors here to gain more profit thru the incentives….
NAP? You got fed with some bread crumbs but got brainwashed into thinking it was a brownie.
NAP is created to ensure the survival of P1. First you need to prove that NAP and vehicle taxes are mutually exclusive or else there’s nothing much to drbate on.
Thai has p1 orNAP? Why CBU cars there still expensive?
If want Proton close shop, the Perodua must close shop 1st
In most time, when you do not have anything to say, just shut up and do not simply say anything for the sake of self promotion.
Incidentally, Suzuki closed shop in USA not long ago because the consumer association there did an adverse advice to the consumers. That tells it all, isn’t it?
There is really nothing good to come out from this. As most people already said, it’s quiet obvious:
1) Suzuki rebadge canibalizing Iriz sales. This is all fighting for the same piece of pie. People buy Axia/Mawi not because they want Axia/Mawi. They simply don’t want Proton.
2) Iriz will die like Savvy/Tiara soon due to Proton stupidity.
3) Instead of fixing Proton’s technology and management problem (Punch CVT, CAMPRO, cronies), they go rebadge more cars. WTF.
Mahathir still spinning there will be new Suzuki cars with redesign using same components. Perodua also making different shells with Daihatsu cars. Big deal. A rebadge is a rebadge. So after 30 years of screwing customers, they follow the formula set by Perodua 20 YEARS AGO. And to add pain to insult, Thailand has benefitted with all the CKDs and assembly.
Why the hell still need to lansi and “design your own farking car”, when you can just rebadge and sell? If we done this 30 years ago, Malaysia economy will probably be twice as good with low cost car, lower household debt and booming car assembly industry.
And where the hell is Proton’s CEO? Everytime it’s Mahathir talking at Press conference. Please just fired the CEO since Mahathir can do good job of CEO as well. Don’t waste more money hiring 50k CEO’s who do RM5k job.
Fark you Mahathir. You earned it.
I know it will be next to impossible but please rebadge the Jimny,please…..
rebadge suzuki swift and sell at 40k please. rename it as proton pantas, pantek or whatever. i buy!!!
Proton Pancut
77000 people involved in producing 120,000 cars for f…up Protong.
Tun admitted in the past,they only scrutinise 1 in 40 Proton cars that came off production.Imagine the AWESOME QUALITY.
He also praise Perodua’s new japanese mgmt in incalcating sushi work ethics.
Then,why things still so bad after discovering so many painful lessons?
Suzuki is like CHEMOTHERAPY for Protong’s and Lotus cancer.It is too late.Unless you chop off stepchild Lotus,no profits will ever surface.
Suzuki will be the SAYORNARA .
Too bad for suzuki malaysia automobile. Close down in few month. All poor staff convert to proton staff. Also too bad for existing suzuki customer, need to service their car at proton next year. Imagine who going to take care of the parts in the future.
Rebadge swift sport pls.
At its lowest, Proton could just contract manufacture small Suzuki cars for ASEAN. That alone will greatly reduce their running costs, develop and train local vendors, reduce our import-export deficit and much more.
At its highest, Proton and Suzuki could co-develop small cars for the global market. They could share platforms, engines and transmissions. The cars could be badged as Suzukis in some markets and Protons in other markets. In other words, something like what Fiat-Chrysler Automobiles and VW Group is doing right now.
To most Malaysians, the word ‘rebadge’ is ALWAYS a dirty word. It doesn’t have to be, if done correctly. How else do you think the world’s top car companies are maintaining their top spots if it weren’t for rebadging ? This is not the 1960s, you can’t build cars in sheds and expect to sell them on the global market, that won’t work today. Now there’s various regulations on exhaust emissions, car safety, market homologation, environmental friendliness and most of all, cars have become MUCH more complicated than they used to be even in the 90s, let alone the 60s.
In today’s world, small car companies NEED a partner company or big brother if they want to SURVIVE; prospering is another story. Unless if you’re running a small NICHE company like Tesla or Koenigsegg, then you’re excused, but companies like Proton and Perodua are not niche companies. Perodua has long maintained their relationship with their senpai, Daihatsu since their inception. Their relationship grew stronger when Daihatsu took over the manufacturing arm of Perodua in the mid-2000s. Proton used to be good friends with Mitsubishi, but at the same time Daihatsu began strengthening relationships with Perodua, Mitsubishi began ditching Proton by selling off their equities in the company (to pay off their own debt). By then Proton could design their own cars and engines, like the Waja and Gen-2, but syiok sendiri-ness and flawed judgement made Proton weaker when they should have become stronger. For the next 10 years, Proton didn’t have any real partners they could work with, until now of course.
Anyway, storytime aside, Malaysians should realize that rebadging is not necessarily a bad thing. We should understand that everyone does it, and some do it more than others too. Proton used to be full-time rebadging in the 80s and 90s, but I strongly believe that even after their partnership with Suzuki, Proton will continue to design their own cars and engines in the C-segment specifically, while the A and B-segment Proton cars may see more Suzuki-engineered ones and the D-segment yet to be determined. There’s no reason to believe that all future Proton models will be rebadged Suzukis.
It is not dirty, myvi is rebadged passo, still the best seller
Myvi is rubbish, ONLY Malaysians like it.
And you are rubbish coz you are Malaysian
Nothing wrong with rebadge. But what is wrong is Proton has always been condeming rebadge (mahathir especially) saying the country need our own technology lar, our own car lah. And now, they do exactly what they didn’t want to do in order to survive.
So where is the direction of this company?? Sekejap nak syiok sendiri own car, own engine, sekejap tarak duit, nak rebadge.
No focus, no vision, no decision, no roadmap.
It’s like a headless chicken running here and there led by another headless chicken(Mahathir).
30 years all the way back to rebadge again while blaming others except themselves?
“Stupidity; keep repeating the same thing all over again and expect different results”
I think rebadging is not the problem… you see that during their peak, most of the cars they sell are rebadge. But the problem is Proton (aka TunM) started to make lousy car themself and stopped rebadging. Thats when they started to go down hill…
Proton ARIA?
PARIA? :P
proton is the new bitch for Suzuki ka??
You must be living in cave for too long
Nope you are new bitch here dude
Superglue is new bitch for —– (any glue)
Proton aims lot of things but the biggest aim is to get more public funds.
From what i see:
The moment Proton launch a budget Suzuki Rebadged car,
the moment Proton loosing all Campro Powered car sales.
Proton should change the focus:
1. promo for rebadged suzuki.
2. promo for Inspira.
3. promo for Accordana.
focus on this 3 car for great sales.
enough.
You cannot compare the lowish torquey of turbo engine with n/a engine. Even Honda will go for it next year.
Malaysians buy car not because got turbo ker no turbo ker. Nobody give a fcuk except a handful of rempits and fanbaoy. Majority just want affordable, safe car with decent space and boot and of course, fuel saving.
Saga can fit those requirements. So what?
Saga got VSC?
Saga Fuel Saving?? LOL.
You are exactly right!!!
1) Suzuki small cars for the low-end segment A-B. Dump Saga.
2) Promote back Inspira as C-Segment with added safety features like VSC and 6 airbags and upgrade and modify a bit.
4) Accordana in the high-end section.
Sell off the Campro, Preve, Suprima to China companies. They have cash and will buy anything.
No more “design your own” car syiok sendiri mentality. Just rebadge, build and assemble like Thailand. Already got excellent role model. Just farking follow it!
Iriz and preve are much better than myvi and vios moving coffins
this shows how bankrupt of ideas the whole
P1 management is.
after 30 years and all they can come up is this
piece of crap ??
P1 is moving south instead of progressing.
where is the game changer and all the rosy
picture that was painted about being a global
player ?
time to swallow the bitter pill (cyanide)
and just close shop.
no use supporting a company for another 30
years cos they have never and will never progress.
Even the Bangla project failed !!
Baik gulung tikar saja lah !!
Proton won’t be global player even given another 30 years, that is for sure. However, the infrastructure they have owned today can easily turn into a huge assembly plant for other reputable makes, thus closing shop won’t really happen to Proton.
Tanjung Malim plant has been under utilized for years. If they have signed up to CKD Toyota/Honda etc. they would have made a lot of money today. But no…they are too arrogant. Until today, pokai oready, only die-die sign contract to make cars for Suzuki. Go figure.
They have been aiming to be asia bmw, volvo, myvi killer, lockheed martin, toyota rival…. etc. So what is new?
I rarely see “new” myvi on road but more iriz
You see ke tak see ke…. in the end of the day, your sales figure will tell.
this was DRB turn around plan for proton? take over, fire all the good people and destroy the market share and then turn it to a mere car assembler for a dead brand like suzuki which happens to be a part of DRB franchises in Malaysia. this is shame to see proton after 30 years need to assemble cars for others to survive. is this a national car? I dont think so. this is the end for proton. tun M also cant do anything.
I wonder how many people in this comments area are working for drb to give positive for them and give negative for others.
The truth of Malaysians. They are good people, brave, smarts, good talent and rich.
This guy must be a thundercats fan in his 50s
The saddest part is we still see the same management and marketing faces who came up wit all those products that failed big time around and even pomoted year after year..same wit oter GLCs…i really wish i had their job