Archive for Malaysian Makes

Sketches of the front and rear three quarter views of the upcoming 2009 Proton MPV have been revealed on the Buletin Utama segment on TV3 last night, revealing a front bumper design that is reminiscent of the second generation Proton Saga.

Other design details that are revealed include a swage line on the side profile of the car to hide the actual door height.

These sketches may or may not represent how the actual production 2009 Proton MPV will look like as we have not seen an actual test mule being driven on the road yet. All that has been spotted is a test mule using a Toyota Wish body with what is presumably a Proton engine and a rojak dashboard.

WATCH: Buletin Utama TV3, 26th May 2008 - Part 2

Related Links:
First sighting of new Proton MPV-related test mule
Proton MPV due in early 2009

Proton Holdings Bhd has just announced a Q4 net profit of 236.4 million ringgit, compared to 915,000 ringgit during the same period the previous year.

Sales climbed from 1.26 billion ringgit up to 1.72 billion ringgit for the financial year of 2007 (which Proton attributed to the Persona and Saga), resulting in a net profit of 202.9 million ringgit.

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Don’t be shocked that profit before tax for the financial year was listed as RM162.2 million, but somehow net profit for the financial year ended up more than the profit before tax. It’s probably due to tax refunds or something similiar from prior periods.

For the new financial year which will end on the 31st of March 2009, Proton plans to improve its export performance, with the Saga set to be launched in Proton’s major export markets from June 2008 onwards. We’ll get to see whether foreign media share the enthusiasm of a large amount of people here in Malaysia that are happy with the value that the Proton Saga gives. I’m very curious how the Saga will be priced in markets outside of Malaysia, which will decide what budget cars it will go against.

As for production levels, Proton is planning to increase its current production level of 6,400 units monthly up to 8,000 units monthly in the next few months. Production levels were only about 4,500 units a month before April 2008. This is in efforts to meet high demand for its Proton Persona and Proton Saga cars. Last I heard, even the automatic version of the Proton Waja CPS has a waiting list because of fleet purchases.

The Proton MPV is still set to be launched in early 2009, so we should expect to see on-road sightings of the MPV sometime before the end of the year. After its local debut, the MPV will make its way to export markets like Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam in 2010, and China in 2011.

UPDATE: If you take a look at their full Q4 financial results report document, you will find that on page 8 it is report that Proton received an R&D grant from the government under the National Automotive Policy amounting to a total of RM194 million.

The NAP encourages local investment through various incentives such as R&D grants and excise duty exemptions. So for Proton, the benefits from the NAP are RM194 million worth of R&D grant money, an unknown amount of excise duty exemptions through the Industrial Adjustment Fund. The RM194 million is registered under Other Operating Income, which accounts for more than half of the total of RM329.3 million worth of Other Operating Income for the financial year ending 31st of March 2008.

Another interesting item is the sale of the rights to use Intellectual Property for RM32 million: this is the Jinhua Youngman Europestar RCR deal which involves rebadged left hand drive Proton GEN2s sold in China, as explained on page 10.

These photos show what seems to be a white Perodua Myvi SE with an all-new bodykit. The new look seems more feminine rather than the current Myvi’s unisex look (like the Suzuki Swift’s sister?), but this could just be an effect of the angle of the photo.

There also seems to be new colours for the Myvi, including yellow for the SE and two new colours for the standard Myvi - a lighter shade of orange and a new light blue shade. The new pastel-like colours look quite refreshing, and is a good addition to the range as I think we are all bored of the endless almost monotonous amounts of Myvis on our roads now, thanks to the car’s success.

On the interior, we can see that certain models have had their integrated stereo system replaced with a 2-DIN slot, filled with a 2-DIN player that is likely MP3 capable as a USB slot for thumbdrives or other USB-capable MP3 players can be seen.

There is also a shot of a dashboard which shows a new design for the meter cluster.

It’s about time for a mid-life facelift of the Perodua Myvi anyway, since it has been 3 years since the B-segment Perodua was launched in 2005. This means that a facelift for the Indonesian Daihatsu Sirion is on the way as well, as the Indonesian car is built by Perodua, uses Myvi styling and is brought in from Malaysia.

Ingress Technologies Sdn Bhd was recently awarded the contract for the supply of 6 modules for a new Perodua model, which includes the reinforcement roof child part, door child part, rocker panel assembly, fuel lid assembly, lower back assembly and under rear sub-assembly. This will make ITSB a Tier-1 supplier.

Supply will start in the third quarter of the financial year ending January 31 2010. As this would mean sometime in the second half of 2009, this news confirms the circa-September 2009 launch date of the new Perodua MPV mentioned recently by Perodua head Datuk Hafiz.

Related Posts:
New Perodua MPV coming in September 2009

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In line with the late Tan Sri SM Nasimuddin SM Amin’s wishes, his second son SM Nasarudin has been appointed as the CEO and executive chairman of the NAZA Group of Companies as of the 16th of May 2008. SM Nasarudin, 25, is the late Tan Sri’s second son.

After completing his Business Economics degree from the University of Southern California in the US, he joined Naza Kia Sdn Bhd as a management trainee in 2005.

In 2006, he was appointed Naza Corporation Sdn Bhd head of operations, and took up CEO positions in three Naza companies this year - Nasim Sdn Bhd (Peugeot franchise), Naza Corporation Sdn Bhd, and NZ Diners Sdn Bhd (Naza’s first foray into the food business, Bubba Gump Shrimp).

According to a report by Automotive World, CKD assembly of the Europestar Lotus RCR at Youngman’s plant in Jinan, China is set to begin in August 2008 this year. The Europestar RCR is a badge engineered left hand drive pre-facelift version of the Proton GEN2 we have here on our local shores. A total of 150,000 CKD kits have been ordered for the next 6 years - which is about 25,000 units a year.

The Europestar RCR was initially launched by Youngman in early January this year, and sales began with a batch of 30,000 CBU imported units of the left-hand drive car from Proton’s plant in Malaysia. Before launch date, the car had already received 1,500 bookings. The RCR is being pushed in China by an initial appointment of 40 dealers which will provide a sales, service and spare parts network.

Here’s something interesting: the rebadging deal includes royalty payments for legal usage of the Proton GEN2 design. So legally, Youngman - the company behind the Europestar brand - holds the rights for the Proton GEN2 designs in China.

If another Chinese company decides to rip the GEN2 off, it won’t be Proton against a Chinese company in the Chinese courts. It will be a Chinese company against another Chinese company, which could lead to more favorable results than the precedents we have seen previously where a Chinese company who has ripped off a Japanese or western design can get away with it easily.

There will be more cars from Europestar in the Chinese market in the future. While there will likely continue to be some form of platform and parts sharing with Proton, future Europestars will be engineered by Lotus engineering consultants and will be be much further differentiated from the Protons it may share parts with - something like how a Seat Ibiza is a Volkswagen Polo but does not look like one.

Picture above snapped in China courtesy of Astley Ho, find more photos after the jump.

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Click here to read the rest of Europestar RCR CKD assembly to begin in August

Prime Minister Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi claims that the government has stopped Proton’s protective policies because it has started up programs like the Industrial Adjustment Fund which exempts excise duty payment depending on the how much the manufacturer has invested in Malaysia.

“The Government has implemented various measures such as giving incentives and grants, technical training through international strategic partnership, which also benefit the entire industry,” said Abdullah.

Since prices have not really come down in the past few years (manufacturers who wish to keep their strong brand loyalty and perception of good second hand value which Malaysians consider important when purchasing a car will never suddenly drop the prices of their cars because they do not want to anger their existing customers by having their car’s second hand values affected), these non-national manufacturers who have benefited can channel the money into a) increasing specs, b) increasing marketing expenditure to increase sales or c) laugh all the way to the bank.

There has not been and probably will never be any disclosure on which companies are getting duty exemptions, but we can see some form of relaxation in policies here and there. For example, Cam Soh finally managed to start assembling his Chery vehicles here - vehicles which are priced rather closely to Proton’s.

Related Posts:
RM400 million for Proton vendor development

According to Entrepreneur and Cooperative Development Minister Datuk Noh Omar, his ministry will be approaching to discuss the development of a new type of taxi to replace the the bulk of the aging taxis that we currently use, which use the Proton Saga/Iswara models. The new taxi would be an exclusive model designed to be a cab and not based on a passenger car model.

An idealistic thought, but in reality as it is a mass-produced model like the new second generation Proton Saga can only barely touch the RM30K price tag, and with the impending higher fuel prices, taxi operators already have to deal with that as it is and it is not realistic to burden them with a higher purchase cost that would like be associated with this specially developed cab because of its limited volume.

Even in the UK, cabs in most areas use passenger car models, and only the city of London has special London Taxi Cabs built by London Taxis International. The latest model is the LTI TX4, powered by a 2.5 liter VM Motori diesel (360Nm at 2,000rpm) mated to a 5-speed auto or a 5-speed manual.

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The Perodua Kembara was launched in 1998, and as one of the cheapest 4WD SUVs in the market, it took the lion’s share of the SUV market - 60% by 1999. The Kembara’s successor - the Perodua Nautica 4WD was launched today and Perodua seems to be approaching it differently, bringing it as a premium product imported from Japan (a first for a Perodua) with only one variant priced at RM89,900 OTR with insurance. While the Kembara took 60%, Perodua only intends to take 5% of the current SUV market, with sales of about 150 to 200 units monthly.

The Perodua Nautica is essentially a Perodua-badged version of the short wheelbase Daihatsu Terios/Toyota Rush. The front bumper and grille is different, and these along with the rear bumper are made locally in Malaysia, while the rest of the car comes completely assembled from Japan. For lighting, you get foglamps and projector halogen headlamps while the rear brake lamp cluster use conventional bulbs.

The chassis is based on a derivative of the Toyota Avanza platform but has additional reinforcements to make it 30% stiffer than its derivative models. The suspension design consists of MacPherson struts at the front and a live axle at the rear.

The longitudinally mounted 1.5 liter DVVT engine is the 3SZ-VE producing 109hp at 6,000rpm and 141Nm of torque at 4,400rpm. This engine is also found in the Rush and Avanza 1.5. It is mated to a single overdrive 4-speed automatic, and a full-time 4WD system which has a centre differential lock which can be activated from a button on the dashboard. It locks so that the front and rear axles rotate at the same speed.

The shifter for the 4-speed automatic is located in a more conventional position between the two front seats, unlike another more premium-looking design which is available which positions it at an angle more towards the dashboard, allowing it to be much more closer to the steering wheel so that hand movements between the steering wheel and shifter is minimal.

Time for some dimensions - the Perodua Nautica weighs 1,200kg, is 4115mm long, 1695mm wide and 1740mm high. Interior space is 1800mm long, 1385mm wide and 1240mm high. The width between the front passengers is 700mm, and seat height is 740mm. The wheels are 16 inch alloys with 215/65R16 tyres. The cargo area takes 380 liters, and the rear seats can be folded down for more luggage capacity.

Additional niceties include electrically adjustable and flipping wing mirrors and a multi-info display on the meter panel which displays a clock, average fuel consumption, external temperature and remaining travel range.

Click here for more photos and a video of the Perodua Nautica.

Click here to read the rest of Perodua Nautica 4WD: Specifications and Photos

According to a report by Turkish paper Today’s Zaman, Proton intends to make Turkey its European production center. Proton’s Turkish distributor is Ulu Motor, part of the Ulubaslar Group.

The Turkish automotive industry produced 1.13 million vehicles last year, and expects to hit the 2 million annual production mark by 2012. It is now ranked number 10 in the world in terms of annual production of cars. In the past 4 months this year, Turkey’s automotive exports rose 52% compared to the same period in 2007.