Archive for Proton

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Proton brought in the Lotus EVE Hybrid for its Proton Technology Week this weekend, and all journalists got to see was Pak Lah driving it really slowly, parking it, turning off the engine and getting out of the car. That last part was the most important though as it meant the car was left empty for a photo session.

As a recap on what the Lotus EVE Hybrid is, you can read the linked post but here is a brief summary on what makes it a hybrid. The EVE Hybrid combines a 110hp 1.6 liter Proton Campro engine with a 30kW (40hp) electric motor. Instead of the 4-speed auto typically found in a GEN2, the EVE gets a CVT transmission.

The car is claimed to be able to only consume 4.6 liters per 100km. City driving should be a breeze with a massive 233Nm (equivalent to a 2.4 liter engine) at a low 1,500rpm thanks to the boost from the electric motor. Horsepower is up to a combined peak of 141hp, and 0 to 100km/h takes 9 seconds. The electric motor is powered by a 144V battery in the boot.

Look after the jump for more photos and a video of the EVE Hybrid.

Click here to read the rest of Lotus EVE Hybrid at the Proton Technology Week

I have some preliminary details on the Proton MPV due to be launched in the first half of 2009. According to a source in Proton, the Proton MPV is on schedule and one of the first chassis prototypes was shown at the Proton Technology Week.

14th October 2008 UPDATE: Proton MPV Spyshots - photos of the actual Proton MPV being tested on public roads!

The chassis reveals quite a bit about the car. There is also a model of the interior hidden in a box with holes cut into it, much like the peekaboo promo that Proton did for its previous two models. The following are what I gathered on the MPV:

Exterior

• Overall shape is like the Toyota Wish but the rear section of the roof does not slope down slightly like the Wish to improve headroom for the third row.
• Tail lamps use LEDs and have a vertical design extending from the top to down, unlike the Wish’s which do not extend into the D pillar. The tail lamps are slimmer at the top but curve out a little at the bottom, similiar to the Volvo XC90’s design. The signal lamps in the light cluster are positioned towards the top for better visibility. You can actually see this in the previously revealed sketch and the teaser video above.
• There is a swage line on the side profile of the MPV.
• Regular swing doors instead of sliding doors.
• The spare tyre is installed outside under the chassis instead of kept in the car so that you can get access to it easily when the luggage space is occupied.

Interior

• The peekaboo box revealed a two-tone beige interior, but sources in Proton say the colour of the interior has not been finalised. It may be either beige or grey.
• Luggage space is not that great with the third row of seats in place, but can fit one large golf bag. This means balik kampung with 7 people loaded and luggage for 7 will be a challenge.
• Second row splits 60:40 while the third row is a 50:50 split. The seats fold flat.
• Interior roof height is designed to be quite decent to accomodate people who want to ride with songkoks and turbans.
• The shifter uses a gated shift and is dashboard-mounted rather than mounted between the front two seats, a common modern trend with MPV-like vehicles.
• The in-car entertainment is a 2-DIN unit. There are options for a DVD player with an LCD display for the movie mounted at the second row roof area. There is also an option in the future for GPS navigation.
• The 2-DIN head unit is at the top of the center dash area below the aircond vents, and below it comes the air conditioning controls which are three knobs arranged in a triangle shape. Below that is the shifter.
• There are aircond blowers for the second and third row situation at the top left and right of the cabin roof (near the grip handles). Proton source says after testing this produced the best airflow.
• There is no armrest between the front two seats but the armrest is instead a fold-down type integrated into the seat itself.

Chassis

• The wheelbase of the chassis is estimated to be more than 2,700mm but less than 2,800mm. In comparison, the Honda Stream has a wheelbase of 2740mm, the Wish is 2,750mm, the Innova 2,750mm, the Livina 2600mm, and the Mazda5 2750mm.
• The front suspension design uses MacPherson struts and the rear design uses a torsion beam to minimize suspension system intrusion into cabin.
• The front end is designed, supplied and assembled as a single module for weight reduction and ease of installation to minimize QC problems.
• The MPV is said to have very good crash safety design from Proton internal crash tests. A few MPVs will be sent for official crash testing and rating soon.

So there you have it. If you want to look at the interior and chassis for yourself you can head to the Proton Technology Week event tomorrow. The event is happening at the Proton plant in Shah Alam. On the KESAS highway heading towards Klang, turn left after the Center of Excellence and then turn left into the Proton plant.

An initial concept sketch of the Proton MPV interior, but the production version will be tamed down.

Proton MPV teaser video gets attention…

Day 1 visitors having a peek at the new MPV’s interior.

Click here to read the rest of Proton MPV exclusive initial details revealed!

Proton is currently having a promotion for the Proton Savvy where if you book one between the 25th July 2008 to the 25th August 2008, you will get a special package with the car that Proton calls the Savvy Unbelievable Deal at no extra cost over the OTR price.

The special package is worth RM4,500 and includes an Extended Warranty program which extends the car’s standard 2 year warranty to 5 years or 175,000km, free service for 2 years or the first 50,000km, a bodykit consisting of a front lip, rear bumper and side skirts, and a RM1,000 prepaid petrol card.

For this promotion, Proton will be organizing a “Savvy Fun Ride” convoy, where 10 pimped up Proton Savvys will be going around the Peninsular Malaysia to promote this 2-month deal. The pimped up Savvys have been given names according to its theme: Performance, Urban, Gizmo, Angel, 50th Anniversary, Stylo, Fun O Fun, X-Treme, Mr. DJ and i-Care (shown above).

Check out the other pimped up Savvys after the jump.

Click here to read the rest of Proton Savvy Unbelievable Deal worth RM4,500

Proton will be opening its doors to the public at the Proton Technology Week this weekend. Members of the public will be able to have a look at some of Proton’s R&D facilities and future initiatives at Proton’s plant in the Hicom Industrial Estate, Section 26 Shah Alam.

- 2nd August 2008 2:00 PM to 5:00 PM
- 3rd August 2008 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM

In the technology area members of the public will be able to get a glimpse of Proton’s upcoming 2009 Proton MPV as well as R&D facilities like styling studios, safety labs, VR rooms, prototype studios, noise labs and others. I’ll most definitely be there to share with you what can be seen on Saturday night. Then you can decide if its worth checking out on Sunday which has longer opening hours.

UPDATE: Sheikh Muszaphar will be there on the 2nd of August, so this may be one chance for you to meet him in person for whatever reason you want.

In the carnival area there will be free go-kart rides, a precision driving showcase by Proton’s R3 team, a remote control car championship, a drifting demo, show cars and a demo of a driverless Lotus. It should be quite interesting as the driverless Lotus has been flown in all the way from the US.

The Lotus Autonomous Vehicle is based off the Lotus Elise and was an entry to the DARPA Urban Challenge in 2007. It was developed by the North Carolina State University, Insight Technologies, Advanced Vehicle Research Center and Lotus Engineering. It uses laser measurements sensors, high accuracy GPS, and radar.

For those who have children there’s also a children’s fun area. Look after the jump for videos of the autonomous Lotus Elise.

Click here to read the rest of Proton MPV sneak peek at Proton Technology Week

The Terengganu state government is offering taxi drivers who are currently using old Nissans and Toyotas a subsidy of RM10,000 if they want to replace their aging cars with a new Proton Saga or Proton Wira taxi. For taxi drivers that are already using Proton taxis, the government will reimburse up to RM4,000 for refurbishment costs. This is for taxi drivers who have not repainted their vehicles.

Terengganu Rural Development, Entrepreneur and Cooperative Committee chairman Datuk Mohamed Awang Tera said that this subsidy is part of the state’s efforts to reinvigorate the image of Terengganu taxis, but some say that repelling criticism that the Terengganu is not supportive of the national car is part of the reason.

Datuk Mohamed Awang Tera also revealed that a circuit for car and motorcycle races in Mak Lagam Chukai Kemaman is in final stages of construction.

Iranian automotive company SAIPA and Proton has signed a Memorandum of Understanding to enter a strategic partnership that would result in the two companies collaborating in areas of R&D, marketing, sales, JV investments, and supply networks.

The first project will be an inexpensive small sedan that will replace the SAIPA Pride (SAIPA Saba, SAIBA Nasim), a rebadged version of the ancient 1987 Kia Pride which was in turn a rebadged version of the Ford Festiva, or Mazda 121. That generation of the Kia Pride has since been replaced by the Kia Rio.

The new SAIPA compact will likely be based on an existing Proton model or platform similiar to how Chinese automaker Youngman is using the Proton GEN2 for its Europestar RCR. Like China, Iran is a left hand drive market.

It’s interesting to note that one of SAIPA’s subsidiaries (51% owned) Pars Khodro began manufacturing the Dacia Logan in Iran in 2006.

Proton Vendors Association President Dr Wan Mohamed has spoken in defense of allegations that automotive parts sourced from Malaysia can be up to 50% more than those made in Japan. He says that these studies comparing parts prices have questionable materials and methods and even then, they only reveal parts prices between 5% to 15% higher than those in Japan, and in selected sub-sectors only.

According to Dr Wan Mohamed, the Perodua Myvi and Perodua Viva achieved a market price lower than its predecessors because of its 80% parts localisation compared to the Kelisa’s 65% local parts. He argued that if Malaysian parts was indeed more expensive, the cheaper prices for the new Perodua vehicles could not be achieved.

He also cited a few examples on why Japanese parts can be priced cheaper including lower finance charges of as low as 1% per annum for Japanese automotive vendors, lower cost and easy availability of raw materials in Japan, lower mould, die and production line costs, lower amortization and depreciation costs, and a higher degree of automation that Malaysian vendors with lower economies of scale cannot achieve.

He also added that Malaysian vendors have higher levels of wastage due to process rejects due to lower input in R&D but did not go into detail.

Related Posts:
Muhyiddin: Proton’s vendor network needs “discussion”

Source

Proton has come out to defend itself against allegations that the Proton Perdana V6 is too expensive to maintain to the point that the Terengganu state government decided to replace their 4-year old Proton Perdana V6 Executive cars with a fleet of 14 brand new Mercedes-Benz E200K cars.

Proton says a regular periodical service plus oil filter for the Perdana V6 typically costs around RM200, excluding any other incidental spare part costs. With proper care, original parts and good driving habits, there should not be any major problems with the Perdana V6’s gearbox, and that the recommended service schedule for the Perdana V6 is every 5,000km or every 3 months of usage, whichever comes first.

The big shocker is this: after digging through records, Proton found that there have never been any warranty claims made by the Terengganu state government since October 2004 for one of the cars that supposedly racked up over RM100,000 in repairs. The car was purchased in May 2004. In a previous story the state government claimed two of their Perdana V6 Executive cars incurred repair costs of RM175,229.97 and RM132,357.76 respectively since 2004.

When contacted, a Proton official mentioned that the Perdana V6 comes with a 2 year warranty. Who was maintaining and repairing these cars? Why didn’t the fleet manager claim warranty on defective parts from Proton? The answer could be one of two things:

a) the incidents which incurred repair costs only happened in the car’s third year of service onwards after the 2 year warranty period so no warranty claim could be made
b) this is another case of bocor.

Proton added that it would be seriously looking into this matter and will be contacting the Terengganu State Government to find out service history records for the affected cars and provide necessary assistance.

UPDATE: The DPM said government cars has to be national cars. The Terengganu state government justified its E200K purchase by saying Paragraph 6 (II) of the Treasury Circular No. 1 of 2008 allowed government cars that were national cars or locally assembled cars, and the E200Ks purchased are locally assembled models sourced from Mercedes-Benz Malaysia’s Pekan plant. Datuk Shahrir Samad commented on this, saying that the state government misunderstood the circular. The provision for the purchase of locally assembled cars instead of national cars was only for purchases of 4WD vehicles if necessary as Proton did not offer such vehicles in its model line-up.

Related Posts:
Terengganu will justify in detail E200K purchase
New Mercedes-Benz E200K cars for Terengganu exco

MITI Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin says Malaysia is in “no hurry to further liberalise” its automotive sector, but at the same time says Malaysia is fully committed to fulfilling its WTO multilateral commitments. He added that MITI will be looking into ways to ensure Proton remains protected but at the same time improve the National Automotive Policy to be a more progressive policy compared to the “slanted” NAP it is now.

What is desired is a win-win environment where both Proton and foreign brand present can prosper and MITI is trying to achieve that. Industry sources say one of the main reasons foreign investments have shied away from our country is that our policies are too volatile in nature (read: flip flop), making mid to long term planning next to impossible.

Think about it: why do you think certain foreign manufacturers prefer to have ultra long waiting lists rivalling the Perodua Myvi’s at one point record long waiting list rather than expand capacity? Fix that and it is already step one in bringing back the FDI.

Let’s wait and see what the NAP review brings.

Source

Proton has responded to allegations/speculation that Proton’s disposal of its previously owned 57.75% shareholding in MV Agusta for a sum of 1 Euro was not carefully considered with an official statement today, following an announcement last week that Harley-Davidson was going to buy MV Agusta for 355 million ringgit.

In the statement Proton said that due to the conditions and limited options available during that time it was in the best interest of the company to let MV Agusta go based on operational, commercial and financial consideration as at that point of time there was a real danger of MV Agusta falling into bankruptcy.

The international investment bank appointed to advise Proton on its shareholding in MV Agusta had informed Proton that continuing to try to develop MV Agusta into a company with positive cashflow would require significant cash backing from Proton over a long period of time, which would result in the exposure of Proton to significant operational, financial and reputational risks.

Proton also added that from an operations perspective it was advised that there was no way to integrate MV Agusta operations into Proton’s big picture.

Related Posts:
Harley-Davidson buys MV Agusta
Proton disposes of MV Agusta for 1 Euro
Tengku Mahaleel and Tun Dr Mahathir question MV Agusta sale