Archive for Local News

A special celebrity Champion’s Drive will be held at next week’s A1 Grand prix at the Sepang circuit. Malaysia’s A1 Team and Proton has organised a 10 lap race, which involves celebrities racing in Proton’s Satria R3 cars.

Some of the celebrities participating are former F1 champion Emmerson Fittipaldi, ex-F1 driver Jan Lammers, Alex Yoong’s sister Pippa Yoong and Malaysia’s rally king Karamjit Singh.

The Malaysian leg of the A1 Grand Prix will be held from 18-20 November 2005. Tickets are priced from RM30 to RM200.

Sources say that Proton Holdings Bhd is reviewing it’s investments in MV Agusta Motor and the Lotus Group International.

No decision made so far, but Proton might cut down on such investments that are non-core assets.

Proton had made a RM137 million provision for bad debts that contributed to a net loss of RM12.4 million last quarter, and most of that amount is suspected to linked to loss-making MV Agusta.

Proton’s cash reserves had dwindled down to RM 2.8 billion this year, from RM 6 billion in 2001.

I doubt Proton would let go of Lotus – the main subject here seems to be MV Agusta, but we cannot rule it out just yet.

Source

Those who hoped proposal to raise the highway speed limits to 120km/h are in for a disappointment, as Minister of Works Datuk Seri S. Samy Vellu said the government had rejected the proposal and will not entertain anymore proposals on the speed limit as it is final.

The Cabinet had earlier agreed to the proposal to raise the speed limit, but rethought it’s decision due to high accident rates.

Earlier this month, the Transport Ministry released the list of speed-trap camera spots in effort to reduce accidents during the balik kampung season.

These speed trap cameras are installed along accident prone areas. While this move is very unorthodox, it has it’s purpose.

If the drivers know these high-risk areas have speed traps, they will slow down and thus the accident rates will go down. Excellent reason, shows that the government is focusing on lowering death tolls during the balik kampung season rather than collecting revenue from speed summons.

Source: NST, Bernama

The Edge reported on Monday that Proton Holdings Bhd is exploring partnership options with other automers including Mitsubishi Motors Corp of Japan. Talks between Proton and Volkswagen AG seems to have run into difficulty.

It’s interesting to hear that Mitsubishi has popped up among the possible partners that are Volkswagen AG and Hyundai (well, mainly through Sime Darby). Proton had a 20 year old relationship with Mitsubishi which broke down. Mitsubishi disposed it’s entire 16% stake in Proton, most of which were picked up by Khazanah Nasional, which holds 42.7% of Proton shares now.

The Mitsubishi-Proton partnership was deemed a failure because of the lack of technology transfer. What would be different about it this time? Does NAZA and Peugeot’s partnership on the Peugeot 206 involve technology transfer? It’s an outgoing model after all, due to be replaced with the Peugeot 207.

If talks with Volkswagen really break down, we may not see the proposed use of Volkswagen’s Sharan and Passat platforms for Proton’s new MPV and Perdana replacement model.

Whatever the result, everything has just been speculations so far from industry sources. We eagerly await solid outcomes with official announcements.

Source

Looks like Karamjit’s plight had reached the cabinet, thanks mostly to Malay Mail’s efforts. Our PM Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi raised the matter of Karamjit Singh’s lack of sponsorship to continue rallying at the cabinet on Wednesday. He asked, “If Karamjit is a Malaysian and has been producing results and bringing honour to the country, why has support not been accorded to him?”

Karamjit was slapped a RM46,000 (10,000 Euro) fine by FIA after he pulled out of the World Rally Championship due to lack of funds to run the races. He also needs RM57,000 to ship his car back from New Zealand. He is currently in the process of finalising the sale of his apartment to pay for the fine and the transport fees if there are no sponsors in the next few days.

Karamjit said he is touched by offers to set up funds to raise money for him to race, but he will not use public or Sports Ministry funds to race as he believes there are enough big corporations in Malaysia who can sponsor him. Otherwise, he will race for another country next year.

Sports Minister Datuk Azalina Othman Said said that the government will do whatever they can to assist. She mentioned there are several possibilities to help Karamjit continue racing and those options are being explored before a decision will be made.

Sources: Malay Mail 1, 2, 3

Related blog posts:
Why can’t Karamjit Singh secure sponsorship?
Karamjit will not be able to defend APRC title

Toyota Motor Corp Katsuaki Watanabe said Toyota may consider setting up hybrid vehicle plants somewhere in the ASEAN region if there is sufficient demand for hybrid vehicles in the region.

Although Toyota already has a big presence in the Thai automotive industry, it could also choose Malaysia as it’s hybrid manufacturing hub. Watanabe said it depends on where the demand is coming from. There are no immediately plans, and hybrid vehicle manufacturing requires sophisticated machines.

Toyota plans accumulated sales of 1 million hybrid vehicles, running on the road by 2010. It is already half way there, with sales of 470,000 so far since the introduction of the Toyota Prius in 1997.

Source: StarBiz

Oriental Hyundai, the distributor of Hyundai’s CKD Accent, Elantra and Sonata models in Malaysia has launched a new hatchback Hyundai Accent today.

Click here to read the rest of New Hyundai Accent 5-door Hatchback

Sime Darby is determined to take full advantage of the incentives the government has given in the new National Automotive Policy. The National Automotive Policy’s new incentives encourages foreign automakers to assemble their vehicles here in Malaysias, thus turning Malaysia into an automotive assembly and distribution hub for the ASEAN region.

Click here to read the rest of Sime Darby’s NAP plans

StarBiz reports Proton shares have dropped from RM8.35 to RM7.90, making it the second highest loser on the Bursa Malaysia yesterday.

Traders was worried by the announcement that Proton was interested in buying two Volkswagen platforms to rush out the production of 2 new cars to curb falling sales. They said it made no sense for Proton to buy the platforms since they were heading for a technical collaboration or stake transfer in the first place. This implicated the collaboration might not happen.

HLG Research has flagged Proton shares as buy, as these shares are expected to soar up later if any announcement / further development of an alliance with Volkswagen AG.

HLG analysts also believe that the Q1 loss is partly caused by MV Augusta, which is expected to turn around only in 2007. The report also said Proton also carried 30,000 cars in stocks (these are the ones you see in photos of Proton stockyards) which would affect earnings if not cleared by year-end.

Source: Forbes, StarBiz

Looks like we consumers will not be affected much by the adjustments in the way fuel is sold with credit cards at petrol stations.

Banks have agreed to reduce the charge imposed on credit card transactions at petrol stations by 0.3 percent to 0.95 percent. It was previously 1.25 percent. Petrol companies have also agreed to increase commission of 6.17 sen per 1 litre of petrol to 6.66 sen. Commission for diesel will go up from 2.05 sen to 2.44 sen per litre.

However, banks will stop giving bonus points to petrol purchase transactions for their credit card customer loyalty programs to offset the loss in revenue with the 0.3 percent cut in transaction charge.

The bottom line: Prices remain same for petrol purchase using credit cards, but you won’t get credit card reward points for them (this does not mean Bonuslink and Real Rewards).

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