The government is reportedly opening its doors to German automakers to participate in the new national car project, says deputy minister of the Ministry of International Trade and Industry (MITI), Dr Ong Kian Ming.
According to a Bernama report, he said there were many German car companies that had been very successful in assembling completely knocked-down (CKD) vehicles with a lot of local content.
“If the German (auto) companies are interested to explore opportunities in the new national car project, we are willing and open to their proposals,” he told reporters at an MoU signing ceremony on the Malaysia-Germany Strategic Collaboration and the soft launch of the East Coast Economic Region’s (ECER) Asia Centre of Excellence for Smart Technologies (ACES) earlier today.
German Ambassador to Malaysia Nikolaus Graf Lambsdorff said German car brands were already a familiar sight to Malaysian consumers. “Four German carmakers wish to expand their business and increase their production in Malaysia. They are very active here, looking not only at the Malaysian market but also at neighbouring countries,” he said.
So far, it’s unclear if the agency has received any proposals from these automakers, but Ong said an announcement will be made in the future. In echoing Ong’s sentiment, Lambsdorff also said there’s been no official proposals or enquiries of interest from these carmakers to participate in the new national car project.
Meanwhile, Malaysia Automotive Institute (MAI) CEO Datuk Madani Sahari said the third national car project can potentially fulfil market needs in a bid to complete the automotive industry under the connected mobility concept. He also said “the desire to develop the new national car project is not solely to gain fame but it will spur economic spillovers in terms of engineering as well as services.”
While there are factions that are excited about the new ambitious venture, many Malaysians aren’t as supportive of the new national car project, something that Mahathir himself is fully aware of. Madani however, is an avid supporter of the project, and you can read his personal opinion on the matter, here.
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Someone with Twitter account, please tweet to Elon Musk ask him to do some proposals for our 3rd national car. Interested to know what his take. I love their cars so much please make it happen in Malaysia!
China jz made Tesla their new national car.
Chinese steal Swedish technology then came here to steal Malaysian network and ready infrastructure … For one purpose …to sell Geely … Ironically both swedes and malaysians still thanking them for stealing .. that’s how smart the Chinese are
So many companies now want to invest in Malaysia because of a clean Government. No more 60 yrs of utter corruption
Third national car with a price of a tesla…..no
No point open the doors to Germans when the plant in Malaysia will have the same type of lazy people as the 10,000 workers in Proton.
You want it to work, get workers from China or Germany to work in the plant. You will see substantial improvement in quality and productivity.
Proton had a big problem with truancy and workers sleeping in the plant btw. Everyday got berpuluh workers tuang. HR had a big big headache
German carmakers are optimally robotized
Hope we dont get fooled like how Geely fooled us to get national car status. Past incompetent government could not see that we were being conned
Why complain when Daihatsu have been doing it for the past 25 years?
Simple solution, open the vacancy to local chinese they will sapu the job. No need to bring in china or german workers, somemore have to provide them accommodation and subsidize this and that. Not to be racism, Malay and Indian have to wake up and work hard.
Not to be critical, but Chinese got to stop being loan sharks
After Geely misled Malaysian Govt on Geely true intentions of only using Proton facilities and dealer network to sell China made cars …instead of helping rebuild Proton with new models .. just like China involvements in ECRL, Kuantan Gebeng ,Gemas train , Forest City … All left Malaysians high and dry
Nothing is free, they won’t help you if they don’t benefit from it.
I see nothing wrong with that. This is an investment. Look what Geely did with Volvo. They didn’t try to sell Chinese made cars in Sweden and our govt just can’t afford to bail out Proton every year.
As for ECRL bla bla, I just can’t see your beef with that. Those projects meant to develop the East Coast region especially the ports bypassing Singapore and also part of China’s Silk Road infrastructure network connecting Asia and Europe. It will take time but surely benefits us.
Stop being pessimistic and start looking at bigger picture.
Very different … While Volvo has new in-house models … Creatings jobs for swedish … Proton is now a reseller of Geely existing models .. that’s what he meant cheated ….if you bother to read
I only read in X70 news “Approximately 750,000 man-hours have gone into the making of this model by Proton engineers”.
Yes correct, Chinese man hours … Malaysian man hours is 10secs … Stick badge
Not bad. Didn’t know Proton now goes global and sourcing Chinese engineers instead of local. Or is that just another lie?
Last time basher claimed proton is not geely, this time claimed proton got many Chinese china engineers pulak
Want to make until Pero100 still only can rebadge
just rebadge all the german car brands here…job done case close. ^^
Use the people backing this project as dummies to test its safety and autonomous braking system since they all want it so much
Anoter sohai statement, why we kip electing these kinda of people
Too late now… sigh
This idea is doomed to fail for sure. Just shut it down. Save the money and remove all the tolls and all import taxes of foreign cars in bolehland.
Why the hell are they thinking so hard?
This is not America and Australia.
Indonesia and Thailand have done it. No such bullshit about some F***** national car project.
Yet another Lalaland Minister talking bull. Which German carmaker would be interested in UTuRN pet project? Not Mercedes & VW which has assembly plants in Pekan, nor BMW which has assembly in Kulim, and Audi is practically dead here.
The only conceivable “German” brand that might be interested is Borgward. Ha ha ha!
Talkin abt German. P1 oredy Bmw of asia..Haha!
https://paultan.org/2018/03/13/geely-was-looking-at-bmw-before-buying-into-daimler/
Lolz! Even Geely dunwan BMW. P1 now aligned with Volvo & Mesidis.
P1, Geely, Mesidis, VolvoCar, VolvoTrucks, Lotus > all
Lolz! Agree with u bro Joachim!
Then our 3rd national cars will be dumping ground for dieselgated cars and full of DSG failures.
Should ask Elon Musk.
lol. Dyson go to Spore to build electric cars while Gov Malaysia hoping to get proposals from the Germans. https://paultan.org/2018/10/23/dyson-to-build-electric-vehicles-in-singapore-reports/
Lol. Dyson going to build electric cars in Spore while Malaysia Gov seeking proposals from the Germans https://paultan.org/2018/10/23/dyson-to-build-electric-vehicles-in-singapore-reports/
3rd National car…..no need lah
They are still chasing mythical unknown German carmaker while real prospects like Dyson car went to Singapore instead. This gomen is chasing shadows and ineptly managed!
Political parties may change but it is still the same lazy 1.6 million Government Servants that remain the same.
From somewhere:
“Without these 1.6million Government servants, who will keep you safe at home, put out the fires you inadvertently started, ensure your security, keep you healthy, and enable you to travel?
You might as well stay in a cave and never come out.”
Good insight. Let me copy this.
national car but german…this is like Siemens coming to malaysia and make roti canai and we give it national roti canai status
3rd national car is foreign investment, it will bring in more capital, more jobs and more demand in related party. Some people argue it is robotic on duty and less human force, but think again car manufacturer has no way to product everything by themselves. Lamp, wiper, tyre, aircond, seat, rubber seal, airbag, audio etc those are OEM.
This will help to local people who can produce and supply to them. Of course by that time only quality supplier can survive instead of crony and RM2 compmany. Crony companies will one by one shut down or transform to a company which able to provide quality product. Foreign company is very strict on quality.
Proton IS and now WAS the only National car. Perodua is more of a Daihatsu … Sadly Proton today is no longer National … but a China rebadge. So technically speaking the 3rd is actually the ONLY National car
proton = mitsubishi..then renault…then suzuki..honda…
How is this a national car if we collaborate with foreign car companies
Geely is one up on you … They just stick on a badge… Voila ! It’s a Proton …. With tax breaks
Why complain when Daihatsu have been doing it for the past 25 years?
excuse me, German car company to send proposal to you as if they are super keen to work with you? Please la, do you even know where you stand?
Please stick to Japanese…
No Germans . Yes Japanese!
It’ll be great if the new company is not just a 2nd national “car” company, but a “mobility solutions” company, building an integrated transport solution to move people around, rather than just making more cars leading to more roads and traffic jams. If they still want to build their product around a car, perhaps a ride-sharing electric shuttle car system with their own network of roads/tracks might work? I’m just throwing in ideas here…