Dr. M has spoken again on the AP issue after a long silence. He was in Gurun, Kedah recently attending the 80th birthday bash that Naza Automotive Manufacturing Sdn Bhd had hosted for him.
There must be a balance. If the APs are to be issued, let them not reach a point where they can kill Proton and if Proton is allowed to progress, let it not come to a point where it kills other parties.
He didn’t mention any particular formula or ratio though. Anyone think this would work?
Another eye-opener at the recent R3 Street Shootout at Batu Kawan, Penang. Tengku Djan participated in the Drift session and emerged champion in a Proton Waja.
Autoworld reports on the R3 Street Shootout at Batu Kawan, Penang. The highlight of the day for the average Malaysian car enthusiast would be the shoot-out between the Proton Savvy and the Perodua Myvi in the “Pre-viagra” leg of the competition.
John Oxley of Wheels24, a South African car portal was in Malaysia recently for a visit to the Proton Tanjung Malim factory and to test drive the Proton Gen2 which will debut in South Africa soon.
For those that are wondering where on earth your Perodua Myvi is, this latest move by Perodua should be able to get your eager hands on your brand new car’s steering wheel faster.
The Proton Gen2 has landed in South Africa. It will be distributed by Pearl Automotive, a subsidiary of Imperial’s Associated Motor Holdings group. Pearl Automotive also imports Lotus sports cars and Bentley luxury cars.
An edited version of my blog post The Korean Advantage is in MalaysiaKini as a letter. Check it out if you want to, the MalaysiaKini editors have edited it to be much lighter and clearer.
This piece by Zainul Arrifin in the NST seems to indicate that Proton used to have a Japanese managing director back in 1988 - Mr. Kenji Iwabuchi, from Mitsubishi Motor Corp.
The top position went back to a Malaysian in 1993. Datuk Mohd Nadzmi Mohd Salleh. 1988-1993, that’s 5 years.
So a foreigner in the top position at Proton isn’t really as foreign as you think it is.
Some of the points that Kuli had brought up during the video interview may be less accurate or not updated but i agree with his general point of view, that we do not have the economies of scale to compete competitively in the world markets. We can have the lowest engineering cost in the world but we don’t have the economies of scale in the manufacturing because our domestic market is so small and our export non existence. Can u imagine that premium manufacturer such as BMW sold 1.2 million cars a year, at such high profit margin, while our Proton manufactures around 180,000 last year? Although BMW’s engineering cost may be 10 times that of Proton but if we look ath its production volume and the kind of margin it made on its car, what does that tell us? This is not to mention that Korean players such as Hyundai makes 4 million cars a year and GM even more. Tun M has even mentioned in a recent interview in Malaysian Business that Proton needs to make 500,000 units a year to have the scale of economies. How can Proton ever achieve that consider that its production is only a quarter of that? Does it mean protection for another 20 years for Proton and Malaysian buyers continue to be deprived of choices for reasonably good quality cars and affordable prices?
I know you’re a car enthusiast but perhaps you’re not mature enough to know abuot how the economics work.
I did not make any claims in this blog that I know how the economics of car manufacturing work. From where did you get that assumption?
My dear readers… any comments on what he has shared?
