Archive for Proton

Proton has launched a new duel-fuel version of the Proton GEN2 in the UK that can run on both petrol and Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG). It’s called the Proton GEN2 ecoLogic. A small meter near to the gear lever shows which fuel you are running on, and there are warning lights to tell you when you are going to run out of LPG.

According to Parker’s, a liter of LPG gets you about 80% of the mileage you can get out of a liter petrol, but LPG costs approximately 50% cheaper in the UK. There are currently about 1,400 LPG stations in the UK, and 140,000 LPG vehicles on UK roads. Autogas Ltd’s Chris Taylor says this could potentially halve a UK motorist’s bill by roughly 40%.

The car could also qualify for lower road tax because LPG combustion produces less exhaust pollutants, therefore lowering its impact on the environment. The car’s new CO2 figures have yet to be confirmed so the new road tax band is unknown but according to Proton, CO2 emissions are expected to be 15% lower.

The new GEN2 ecoLogic comes with the same 3 year or 60,000 mile (96,560km) warranty as the rest of the GEN2 range in the UK, so there’s no need to worry about your warranty unlike aftermarket conversions. Only 1.6 liter models are available and they cost exactly the same price as the petrol-only models. The only difference is there are cheaper petrol models available with 1.3 liter engines. Both the Persona and the GEN2 are called the GEN2 in the UK, so the UK-market Persona is available with this LPG conversion as well.

Don’t expect this to be coming to Malaysia anytime soon though, as our natural gas vehicles and refueling stations run on CNG (compressed natural gas) instead of LPG. Proton has mentioned before in the past that it would be introducing NGV cars soon and when that happens we will most likely get CNG models.

National carmaker Proton Holdings Bhd announced today at its Annual General Meeting that its new MPV will be launched in March 2009. It also mentioned that it would focus more on fuel efficiency in the future, in line with the world’s energy crisis and high fuel prices.

It also revealed its financial performance for the first quarter of financial year 2008. Proton posted a profit after tax of RM52.03 million, an improvement compared to net losses of RM46.7 million in the corresponding quarter of the previous financial year.

This is thanks to the higher revenue of RM1.7 billion compared to RM1.14 billion in Q1 2007, thanks to higher sales volume of 39,888 versus 28,145. Its net cash balance has also improved from 328.6 million in Q1 2007 to 1.339 billion in Q1 2008.

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Proton launched a special edition of the Proton Persona SE today, priced at RM59,800. The Persona SE is only available in two colours - Blue Haze and Brilliant Red. Like all new units of the Persona, the new Proton Persona SE is powered by the Campro IAFM engine which offers a smoother torque curve compared to the old Campro engine. It is only available with an automatic transmission.

The following are the differences in equipment for the special edition model:

• Leather-wrapped seats, steering wheel, gear knob and trim
• Meter panel from the GEN2 CPS
• Different alloy wheel design (15 inch)
• Cruise Control
• Smoked headlamps
• Silver matte door handles and front grille
• A bodykit consisting of front, side and rear skirts and a subtle spoiler
• A Proton-rebadged windscreen-mounted GPS navigation device

The GPS device loads its maps from an SD card, so it should be easy to replace the maps whenever there are updates. I noticed there were some points of interests loaded onto the map such as local restaurants so if you’re in an area you do not know and want to grab a quick bite the GPS should be quite useful in that sense.

Look after the jump for more photos of the Persona SE.

Click here to read the rest of Proton Persona SE now on sale for RM59,800

We’ve all drooled at the MEM Proton Satria Neo Super 2000 Rally Car built by Mellors Elliot Motorsport according to FIA Super 2000 rally specifications. The Satria Neo S2000 car uses a 280 horsepower 2.0 liter normally aspirated engine based on the 1.8 liter Renault engine in the Waja 1.8X.

Look after the jump to watch a video of a young driver trying the car out and listen to the 280 horses and 271Nm of torque being unleashed through the 6-speed Xtrac sequential transmission. Hopefully more videos of the S2000 Neo will make its way onto the web for our enjoyment soon. Thanks to reader IsaacVky for the pointer.

Related Story:
MEM Proton Satria Neo Super 2000 - Specifications and Photos

Click here to read the rest of VIDEO: MEM Proton Satria Neo Super 2000

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Team Proton Axle’s Faidzil Alang beat 25 other cars and took the chequered flag today at the Bira International Circuit in Thailand, ensuring a driver’s crown win for the team in the inaugural Asian Touring Car 1500Max Series race.

This is Faidzil’s fourth win in the series, chalking up another 15 points bringing his total championship points up to 96 points. The team’s other driver Syafiq Ali is in second place in overall standings with 72 points. Looking at the current standings, it is only possible for Faidzil or Syafiq to win the driver’s title.

The Asian Touring Car 1500 Max Series race is a new regional championship for normally aspirated cars below 1599cc. Example cars that can participate include the Honda Jazz, Peugeot 206, Vios, GEN2, Satria Neo, Waja, Saga, Swift, Aveo and others.

The cars raced by Team Proton Axle are Proton Satria Neo 1500 Max ATCS cars built by Proton’s Race Rally Research division in Shah Alam. The team is managed by Alex Yoong. Other than the two main drivers mentioned (Faidzil Alang and Syafiq Ali), the support driver role is filled by Sanjeev Palar.

1500Max cars are allowed to have bodykits, a 17 inch wheel size, wings, suspension tuning and engine tuning. The engines must be normally aspirated. The race has a strict power to weight ratio rule for the cars to ensure all drivers have an equal chance of winning. Also, winning cars in each race has to have a success ballast added onto the car in the next race.

The next stop for the 1500Max race is Chengdu, China. Look after the jump for more images of our 1500Max Satria Neos.

Related Story:
MEM Proton Satria Neo Super 2000 - Specifications and Photos

Click here to read the rest of Team Proton Axle set to win Asian Touring Car 1500Max Series driver’s championship

The Prime Minister has put the ball in Proton’s court with regards to finding a foreign partner (if Proton deems it necessary).

Commenting on the earlier this week on GM’s supposed renewed interest in Proton, Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badawi told Proton to do its own evaluation on a foreign partner and submit it to the government for consideration.

The saying goes “talk is cheap” and especially so in these flip-flop days, but this could mean either one of two things. One - the PM could have renewed confidence in the aptitude of Proton’s management, trusting them to decide on such business matters.

In previous partnership talks it looked like Khazanah Nasional was handling everything, to the point that when this news piece on GM broke in the media, Proton said partnership talks should go through Khazanah.

The other possibility is something abit more negative but interesting - the government could want to appear to wash it hands clean off Proton matters after previous talks failed.

As for GM’s renewed interest in Proton, some updates have emerged. Sources reveal that Steve Carlisle had actually told the media that it would be open to exploring partnerships including a partnership with Proton if Proton or Khazanah Nasional were to ever approach GM to renew talks, but did not specifically say GM wanted to or was happy to re-open partnership talks.

What he actually meant was GM would be open to evaluate any potential partnerships - and any interest would depend entirely on the evaluation results. The sources used by our previous report as references had jumped the gun a little.

Source

Various officials from within the government have been calling for Proton to continue looking for a foreign partner. The national automaker previously had failed talks with PSA Peugeot Citroen, Volkswagen and General Motors.

The Volkswagen deal would probably have gone through if it were not for Khazanah Nasional pulling out of the talks at the last minute, saying it had to give Proton more time to turn around before any equity/partnership deal could be cemented to ensure a fair deal for Proton.

Bernama reports today that General Motors’ Southeast Asian operations president Steve Carlisle (photo on the left) is willing to restart negotiations with Proton Holdings Berhad on taking up a stake in the company.

This comes just after GM announced it will invest US$445 million in Thailand to build a diesel engine plant next to its existing assembly facility. The new diesel plant will supply inline-4 diesel engines for GM’s trucks in Thailand and global markets.

When contacted, Proton Holdings informed Bernama that it had not been approached by General Motors for any negotiations. Proton also said that since any possible partnership would most likely involve talks of a share transfer, any interest from GM should be directed to its majority shareholder Khazanah Nasional instead.

So there we have it ladies and gentlemen. GM says Proton can come talk anytime, Proton says GM can come talk to Khazanah anytime. Who will make the first move? If talks do restart and a partnership involving stakeholding happens, GM may designate Thailand its truck production center and Malaysia its passenger car output center for cars like the upcoming Chevrolet Cruze.

The new Proton Gen-2 CPS was unveiled earlier this year and has attracted a lot of interest from the public as the Malaysian auto maker fitted the new Campro CPS power plant. Proton has also made various revisions on the exterior and interior.

Will it be just another disappointing product of Proton, or is there light at the end of the tunnel? We shall see in our test drive report.

Click here to read the rest of Proton GEN2 CPS Highline Manual Test Drive

The Proton Vendors Association (PVA) and Kelab Vendor Perodua (KVP) are pushing for the excise duty for cars, MPVs and SUVs to be set at the same level. According to the two associations, the excise duty for MPVs and SUVs are currently lower than those of passenger cars.

They say the government will benefit from such a move because of higher excise duty income, and the related authorities will also benefit from the simplicity of multiple vehicle types being assigned a single tax category. They say the increased duties will encourage automakers to locally assemble their MPVs and SUVs, and for those who are already assembling them locally, it will encourage a higher use of local content.

We all know that both Proton and Perodua will be introducing MPV vehicles in 2009. This push for a single excise duty will definitely benefit the Proton MPV and Perodua MPV as the percentage of local content in the two vehicles will be higher than locally assembled or ASEAN-imported foreign makes.

Also in the memorandum sent to the Ministry of International Trade and Industry is the recommendation of streamlining the road tax prices for both petrol and diesel vehicles to promote the use of fuel efficient diesel vehicles, a proposal to scrap import duties on automotive-related raw materials, and a proposal for a vehicle end of life policy.

Yup, in times where fuel prices are so high, they’re still trying to get the government to take away that 25 year old car that you’re forced to use because your monthly fuel expenditure is too high for you to afford the loan repayments of a new car.

Source

The Proton Waja CPS 1.6 is not entirely a new model to begin with, going through a number of facelifts. It’s still pretty much the same car with a new engine and a couple of new features over the previous version.

This publication wrote about this car a couple of months back following its showroom appearance with some details into the car’s factory performance figures for comparison. We finally got our hands on one recently.

Read our report on the Waja CPS after the jump.

Click here to read the rest of Proton Waja CPS Test Drive Review