Archive for Malaysian Makes

A few days ago there were rumours on Proton partnering up with Jinhua Young Man Automobile for it’s maiden entry into the Chinese market.

Yesterday, industry sources were quoted to say Proton would be tieing up with Chery Automotive Co Ltd to produce cars in China. Sources report that Proton Managing Director Syed Zainal Abidin was in China last month and visited Chery’s factory. The source also said the Gen2, Wira and Savvy will be the first cars which Proton would assemble in China for the Chinese market.

Production will begin with a capacity of 50,000 cars a year and it could be increased to 200,000 a year in 3-4 years depending on response and whether Proton has enough models in it’s line-up.

Chery Automobile recently launched it’s first car the Chery A520 in the United States through Visionary Vehicles and is surrounded by a controversial shroud for it’s Chery QQ minicar, which is a completely 100% rip-off of the Chevy Spark, just one of the many acts of vehicle piracy in China.

All rumours from anonymous industry sources so far. Nothing official from Proton.

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The last we heard our Prime Minister Abdullah Ahmad Badawi say anything about Proton at all was back in October when he said Proton would sell stake to Volkswagen AG. The issue of management control was not mentioned though.

After a really long silence on the topic of our favourite national carmaker, the PM has finally said a few words on the matter. PM Abdullah Ahmad Badawi says Proton needs a foreign partnership to boost efficiency and car quality.

He said to reporters in Putrajaya that Proton is national property and a national icon and would never be sold off to foreigners. What Proton needs is a smart partnership iwth a win-win situation so it can gain advanced technologies to cope with other makes as Malaysia slowly opens up it’s automobile market.

Okay. What else is new?

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Proton had attempted to enter the India market with talks with Hindustan Motors in 2003 but talks didn’t really amount to much. Now Proton has started talks again with Mahindra and Hindustan Motors for a retry at the market.

Proton MD Syed Zainal Abidin was reported to issue a statement to international media that Proton would re-look at China and India as the market in those two countries were too huge to ignore. Proton and Hindustan Motors has something in common - Mitsubishi as a technical partner.

The Democratic Action Party (DAP) secretary general Lim Guan Eng handed over a 20-question memorandum over to Proton corporate communications head Yusri Yusof on Friday at Proton’s HQ in Shah Alam. The questions were mainly in relation to Proton’s sale of MV Agusta SpA for only 1 Euro, Volkswagen’s failed alliance with Proton and Proton’s new co-operation with Mitsubishi.

In other Proton news, Bursa Malaysia CEO Yusli Mohamed Yusoff said on behalf of Bursa Malaysia that Proton has issued sufficient information on it’s sale of MV Agusta SpA and has fulfilled Bursa Malaysia’s disclosure requirements for listed companies. There are a few provisions for business decisions that require shareholder approval but the sale did not trigger any of them, as such Bursa Malaysia does not require anything else from Proton.

However, a spokesperson from the Securities Commission said the SC is looking into the matter as suggested by Tun Dr. Mahathir in his press statements, but no final decision has been made yet.

Source: AFX News, Bernama

Proton managing director Syed Zainal Abidin Syed Mohd Tahir has stated Proton is not selling the British sports car manufacturer Lotus, in reply to Tengku Mahaleel and Tun Dr. Mahathir’s offer to buy the company for 1 pound sterling in jest.

Syed Zainal said Proton’s future plans for the future will capitalise on the Lotus Group’s engineering strength, as well as areas like branding and training. He admitted Proton had not utilised Lotus to the desired extent so far, but Proton and Lotus officials met two weeks ago to discuss future collaborations. It is hoped that future collaborations would be done in a more structured and focused manner.

To address falling sales, Proton Edar CEO Datuk Maruan mentioned Proton would organise visits to the Proton Shah Alam plant to show potential customers how Protons are built, in order to restore faith in the national car manufacturer’s products.

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These photos were taken during the Proton Street Shoot Out at Bukit Jalil recently. The Perodua Myvi was fitted with semi-slick tyres, and was doing a round-a-bout maneuver when suddenly the rear axle just snapped. Cause is unknown, but speculation is that maybe a mounting bolt gave way or the welding of the torsion beam wasn’t strong enough for driving conditions that require extreme maneuvers like the Street Shoot Out. These are just speculations.

Photos from hasadi78. Note that the car is modified, so the cause of the snap might be due to improper modification.

More Top Gear! Alot of you are going to be very interested in this video. Jeremy Clarkson and the team tests out a bunch of Malaysian and Korean cars. Some of the ‘victims’ include the Hyundai Getz, the Kia Picanto, the Proton Waja, the Proton Gen2, the Hyundai Accent, the Perodua Kelisa and a Kia Magentis known as the Kia Optima here on Malaysian shores.

Apparently a pogo stick is better than a Kia Rio, and the Hyundai Accent should be renamed the Hyundai Accident. couldn’t blame them actually, they test drove a 3-cylinder 1.5 diesel Hyundai Accent that does the 0-100km/h in 19 seconds.

Top Gear actually liked the Proton Gen2, but I believe their sentiments is exactly like most of ours here in Malaysia - Proton has got their priorities wrong and should have traded in the Lotus sports-tuned handling with some Toyota-developed door trim.

Best car is the Hyundai Getz, but it’s too expensive and defeats the point of buying a Korean. Which might work well for us here in Malaysia, a Hyundai Getz is not much more expensive than other Korean makes so if you want to go Korean, maybe you want to look at the Getz.

Video is after the jump.

Click here to read the rest of Top Gear compares Malaysian and Korean cars

After a failed partnership with Volkswagen AG, Proton signed an agreement on the 28th of January indicating that the two companies will collaborate on certain projects but abandoning any possibilities of a joint-venture involving an equity stake. Volkswagen will also supply certain parts to Proton.

Something has come out of the new fresh discussions so far. Volkswagens executive director for international sales Kevin Rose has shed a bit of light on the shroud surrounding Proton and Volkswagens new partnership at the launch of Volkswagens new HQ in Wisma UOA, Bangsar.

Rose said Proton is likely to use two or three of Volkswagen platforms to develop new cars. These are likely to be cars not in Protons current portfolio. In my opinion, Proton is lacking an entry-level budget car to replace the Proton Saga/Iswara, an MPV and an executive sedan to replace the Proton Perdana.

This seems to be a one-way relationship akin to the previous Proton-Mitsubishi tie up back when Proton was first formed. Protons new relationship with Mitsubishi is supposed to be more of a two-way collaboration, signifying perhaps Mitsubishi acknowledges Proton has grown up and is a lot closer to the same level as they are. Big daddy Volkswagen clearly sees Proton as an angsty teenage kid who doesnt quite know which path to take in life.

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In order to enter the coveted Chinese market, it is part of the rules and regulations that you have to partner up with a Chinese company to set up shop there. Proton has had intentions of entering the Chinese market for quite some time and now it is rumoured that they’ve identified a suitable partner for them to enter the Chinese market with.

The prospective partner is Jinhua Young Man Automobile, based in Zhejiang. Rumours are that Jinhua is setting up to build a sedan model with Proton at it’s factory in Shandong. Jinhua also assembled 800cc minis in Iran with Iran Khodro.

The first sedan is expected to roll out of production in June 2006. It’s not known whether it will be a Proton or Jinhua-badged model, or whether it will look like any of the Protons we have here in Malaysia.

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While the folks at our first national car manufacturer are busy restructuring Team Proton, Perodua is grinning ear to ear at the runaway success of their latest model the Perodua Myvi. The Perodua Myvi has received 80,000 bookings so far, but only 35,000 are on the road due to inability for production to keep up with sales. Average bookings per month have stabilized at a certain figure, but still pretty much piling up at a rate of 4000-4500 new bookings a month. Earlier months sometimes had over 10,000 bookings in a single month. Perodua is working on expanding their production capacity and hopes to reduce the waiting period to 4 months from the current 7-9 months by mid-2006.

As for a new model, Perodua has one up it’s sleeves (I think it’s this model), but it will only launch it in early 2007 in order not to cannibalize it’s Perodua Myvi’s sales. The new model would also have engine capacities of 1.0 liter and below in order not to cut into the Perodua Myvi’s segment. Definitely sounds like either a Kelisa or a Kancil replacement model. I wonder if Perodua will combine the two product lines.