Archive for Proton

Proton’s Thai distributor Phranakorn Auto Sales will be launching a CNG-equipped Proton Persona in Thailand tomorrow. The Persona CNG will be able to run on both petrol and compressed natural gas, a fuel which is also available in Malaysia and though limited in availability. CNG is very popular with taxis because of its cheaper price.

Following this announcement you can probably expect Proton to offer a similiarly equipped NGV Persona in Malaysia soon. Factoring the cost of the equipment needed to allow the car to run on natural gas into the hire purchase loan will take alot of financial burden off the carbuyer who is seeking to benefit from the lower price of natural gas.

The problem is refuelling your car with CNG in Malaysia is currently only limited to selected Petronas stations which are mainly concentrated around the Klang Valley. This is an inconvenience.

No prices for the Thai market Proton Persona CNG have been released yet, but as a comparison the Neo is sold for 499,000 Thai baht while the GEN2 goes for 549,000 Thai baht. The cheapest Proton model is the Savvy which goes for 399,000 Thai baht and comprises of half of all Proton cars sold in Thailand.

We’ve already seen one video of the MEM Proton Satria Neo S2000 rally car in the past, where it was being tested out by a very young racer. You will find two more videos after the jump, including one video of the Neo S2000 being tested on the French alps.

Click here to read the rest of More MEM Proton Satria Neo S2000 Videos!

The Proton MPV Naming Contest is now closed and Proton says they received a total of over 251,000 entries, or about 11,000 a day consistently. A team of professional auditors have been appointed to audit the selection process and the winners will be notified sometime in October 2008.

“This is a historic moment for us and we would like the public to play a big part in naming the new MPV. We hope the MPV will be Malaysia’s Preferred Vehicle in terms of style, price and utilization,” said Proton managing director Datuk Syed Zainal.

Related Posts:
Proton MPV - exclusive initial details revealed!
Proton MPV - first batch to roll-out mid-September 2008
Proton MPV sketches preview production model
First sighting of new Proton MPV test mule

Fans of Top Gear will know that one of the segments in the popular motoring TV show is the “Star in a Reasonably Priced Car”. In the UK show it is currently the Chevrolet Lacetti (called the Optra on our shores), which replaced a Suzuki Liana after the first 7 seasons.

What happens is a celebrity is brought onto the show, is interviewed about his or her interests in cars, then the star sets a lap around the Top Gear test track in the car.

In Top Gear Australia, the segment is called the “Star in a Bog Standard Car”, and the first car used is our very own Proton Satria Neo! I’d say its a great choice thanks to its relatively cheap price and above average handling, and for the most of it because I am Malaysian and it’s quite exciting to see something as familiar as a Proton used.

Proton Australia (whether they paid for this inclusion or not) must be really happy that their little hatch getting plenty of airtime through the show. As for the new and upcoming Top Gear USA, their reasonably priced car is supposed to be the Kia Rio.

Click here to read the rest of Proton Satria Neo: Top Gear Australia’s “Bog Standard Car!”

The balik kampung deal fever seems to have infected Proton UK as well, with the prices of the GEN2 receiving slashes up to £2,800 (RM17,520) according to Proton. The 1.3 liter Proton GEN2 now costs £6,995 (RM43,770) while the 1.6 liter version is now priced at £7,495 (RM46,900).

The GSX LE in particular has a price slash of £2,800 and free leather seats worth £1,000. It now costs £8,495 (RM53,160) for the manual and £8,995 (RM56,300) for the automatic and features four airbags (front and side), climate control, foglamps, a tailgate spoiler, all-round power windows, a CD player, and steering wheel audio.

All models come with a 6 year warranty for the powertrain, and 3 year warranty for the rest of the vehicle.

Proton has appointed Claudius Meynert as its new director of International Sales and Services Division. 44 year old Meynert used to be Audi’s managing director for the Asia Pacific region (he served Audi for 14 years) before starting up a Bangkok-based automotive parts and trading company called Trade Asia in 2007. Meynert holds an MBA from the Georg August University in Goettingen, Germany.

You can actually see that in the photo on the left provided by Proton, Meynert is actually leaning on a blue Audi. Part of the large shield grille and its four rings are just barely visible in the bottom left corner of the image.

“With Meynert at the helm of PROTON’s ISSD, the company is now more equipped in its effort to focus on PROTON’s long term export strategy, concentrating on high growth regional markets namely ASEAN, China, India Middle East, including North Africa,” said Proton’s managing director Dato Syed Zainal Abidin Syed Mohamed Tahir.

Click to enlarge

Proton is having a nationwide naming contest for the new Proton MPV from now until the 30th of September 2008. Participants can enter the contest either via an online website or SMS. I recommend you use the online form as it is free while the SMS costs RM0.80 plus your existing mobile operator charges, unless you suddenly get an idea while you are not at a PC and want to quickly enter it in case someone else thinks of it first. Proton is not profiting from it though as the RM0.80 will be donated to charity.

To join via the website, just fill in this form. For SMS entries, you need to type P (space) IC Number (comma) Your MPV name entry (comma) Rationale for name (comma) Original tagline. Send the SMS to 36677. The example given is “P 821013105150 Familia, MPV is for families to travel together with enough space on long journeys, A place to bond with your family”.

There is a maximum length limit of 1 SMS for each entry, so be sure not to type a description that is so long that it extends over 1 SMS’s length (160 characters). For online entries there is a max limit of 145 characters including spaces as you don’t have to include your IC number in the entry, but fill it in separately in another form field. You will have to be 18 and above to participate.

The grand prize winner will get to name the new Proton MPV and will win one unit of the Proton MPV. Two runner-ups will win a trip for two to Lotus UK worth RM15,000 each.

Winners will be announced at least 1 month before the Proton MPV’s official launch somewhere in end-March 2009. Winners will be contacted in October 2008, but as there are 3 prizes, I think this will be for the two runner-up who will win the trips.

It would not make sense to contact the grand prize winner until much closer to the Proton MPV’s launch date as the chosen name would then be leaked. But then again I might be wrong. Look for one more photo of the chassis after the jump.

Click here to read the rest of Win a Proton MPV in Proton’s naming contest!

Click for hi-res image

Would you be interested in a Proton Persona powered by 100% electric power for about RM80k? That could be a genuine question sometime in the future, thanks to Detroit Electric. The team from Detroit Electric is in KL this week with their fleet of prototype electric cars built on existing models. A few cars were available at the media event today including a Lotus Elise, a Proton Persona, and a Proton Savvy. All were powered by Detroit Electric’s electric powertrains with various power ratings.

We took the Lotus Elise for a spin around Proton’s oval test track at its Shah Alam plant. Read our experience as well as more on Dutch-based Detroit Electric after the jump.

Click here to read the rest of DRIVEN: Detroit Electric’s electric Lotus Elise

Click for hi-res image

The Proton MPV will begin on-road testing from the 12th of September 2008 onwards, so we’ll be able to spot it on our local roads and hopefully get some nice clear photos possibly from mid-September onwards. It will be launched to the public in March 2009.

Proton sources have confirmed that the Proton MPV will initially come with the 125 horsepower Campro CPS found in the highline GEN2 CPS facelift. The car will ride on 15 inch wheels which should be easy on the fuel consumption as well as tyre change bills as smaller tyres are cheaper. 125hp is far from sprinty on a heavy vehicle especially with all 7 seats occupied, but it is still more powerful than the 1.3, 1.5 and 1.6 liter engines that almost all B-segment Japanese MPVs have to make do with.

A turbocharged Campro engine is said to be in the works but according to inside sources if any other engine options other than the CPS engine are to be available for the Proton MPV, next in line is more likely to be a turbodiesel engine. In fact, Proton may have played a part in (successfully) lobbying for the recent drop of diesel road tax rates to the same level as petrol road tax rates.

Above is a rendered image by Theophilus Chin based on insider information including some photos of a finished Proton MPV model that have been circulating in e-mail inboxes. Some of you have definitely seen it already by now. Some details in the rendered image are correct so you can have a “preview” but others are intentionally left different to prevent any legal problems.

The actual car will have a much sharper and sportier front end which will remind you of the Lotus APX. I am also unable to post up the finished model photos as they were taken inside private properties and not public roads, thus leaving anyone publishing it open to legal problems.

Look after the jump for two more shots of Theo Chin’s rendered speculation, or click any one of the related stories before for more exclusive details on the Proton MPV.

Related Stories:
Proton MPV: exclusive initial details and specifications revealed!
Proton MPV sketches preview production model
First sighting of Proton MPV test mule on the road

Click here to read the rest of Proton MPV first batch to roll out mid-Sept 2008

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.

UPDATE: Proton has launched the Proton Persona CNG in Thailand.