Archive for Proton

Dato Nadzmi Mohd Salleh is back in Proton as the group Chairman of the company, effective from the 1st of January 2009. He previously held the managing director position from 1993 to 1996, and was also appointed director and deputy chairman of Proton Edar from September 2005. He will replace Datuk Azlan Hashim, who served as Chairman since end-2004.

The new chairman is also director of several companies such as Ranhill Utilities Bhd, JT International Bhd, VS Industry Bhd, Kumpulan Kenderaan Malaysian Bhd, and Syarikat Kenderaan Melayu Kelantan. He is also the president of the Badminton Association of Malaysia.

54-year old Dato Nadzmi is currently the chairman/managing director of Nadicorp, whose business involvements include Transnasional buses, Cityliner buses, Plusliner buses and the Nice luxury bus.

It could be a coincedence that Proton’s top man during Mitsubishi-rebadging days is making a comeback right after an announcement that Proton will be rebadging a Mitsubishi car for the next generation Proton Waja. Let’s hope that Nadzmi is the right man for the job!

An agreement has been inked between Proton and Iranian distributor Zagross Khodro for the supply of automotive parts to Iran which will allow Zagross Khodro to assemble CKD kits of the Proton GEN2 in Iran. Assembling the Proton GEN2 locally in Iran will enable more competitive pricing.

The first locally assembled Proton GEN2s are expected to roll off Iranian assembly lines in April 2009 from Zagross Khodro’s assembly plant in Borujerd city, southwest of Iran. The two companies have previously inked two other agreements on licensing, technical assistance and equipment purchase.

Proton and Zagross Khodro’s CKD partnership goes back to the early 2000s where the latter assembled and sold the Proton Wira in Iran. It previously sold fully imported Proton cars in the Iranian market. Zagross Khodro was established in 1996 and claims to be Iran’s largest private automotive company.

Proton managed 863 bookings at the 25th Thailand International Motor Expo held this month, which is the sixth highest amount of orders received at the event among the other car manufacturers with an exhibit at the show.

Thailand’s “national car manufacturer” Toyota held the top spot of course, with 4,193 bookings. This was followed by Honda in second place with 2,552 orders, Isuzu with 1,760 orders, Chevrolet with 1,194 orders and Nissan with 1,008 orders. Total orders gained for all manufacturers at the show is 14,000 orders, which included brands like Mitsubishi (756 orders), Mazda (767 orders), Ford (301 orders) and even Malaysian brand Naza with 154 orders.

The top Proton model sold at the show was the recently launched Proton Persona CNG with factory-installed dual-mode petrol or CNG fuel capability.

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Proton will install rear seatbelts for the following cars for free under its free rear seatbelt installation program.

The affected cars are: 144,000 units of the Proton Saga/Iswara LMST produced from 2004 to 2008 with the chassis numbers between B933165 to B244061, and 81,930 units of the Proton GEN2 produced between May 2006 to June 2008 with chassis numbers between G000001 to G107849.

For affected users, please head on to this form to set an appointment. Hopefully the form works and Proton will contact you to set an appointment for you to bring your car in to get your seatbelt fixed.

Penang Chief Minister Lim Guan Eng says when the time comes for the state’s fleet of Proton Perdana V6 cars to be replaced, the new cars will not be Protons. He added that foreign imported cars like the Toyota Camry are an option but the new choice of car will only be evaluated when the time comes to replace the Perdanas.

He continued to say that Proton’s service was “abysmal“, and that even though Penang State Secretary Datuk Jamaludin Hasan had written in an official letter of complaint, it went unanswered. Penang’s Proton Perdana V6 was quoted to be able to rack up more than RM30,000 a year in maintenance costs. Perak quoted RM1 million over 4 years for its entire Perdana fleet, and Terengganu quoted RM1.15 million for the same time period.

From a personal experience, my 7 year old Proton Perdana V6’s gearbox (shown above) just started experiencing problems a couple of months ago and was quickly rectified for a little over RM2,000. Other than a few cases of the suspension arms and bushes wearing out, it’s still serving me well. Sometimes it’s how you drive it and how well preventive maintenance is done. If you intentionally let things go really bad before you fix something, costs can bloat up way over the top.

Related Posts:
Toyota Camry: new Perak State official car
ACA arrests 3 men related to Perdana V6 case
Perdana V6 fleet cost Terengganu RM1.15 million in 4 years
Terengganu Perdana V6 maintenance handled by drivers and superior officers
Terengganu will justify E200K purchase in detail
New Mercedes-Benz E200K cars for Terengganu exco
Proton: no warranty claims recorded for Perdana V6 executive that needed over RM100k in repairs

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Proton managing director Datuk Syed Zainal Abidin told the Oman Economic Review that Proton was developing a turbocharged engine set for introduction by the years 2010 to 2011, just in time for a facelift of the 2009 Proton MPV which could see the introduction of this turbocharged engine.

The turbocharged engine would be in line with the current market trends of having a small displacement engine but forced inducted to produce the equivalent horsepower of a larger motor, usually with more torque, and more fuel efficiency. The engine will have the power output equivalent to a 2.0 liter engine. We could be looking at a 1.6 liter Campro turbo or Campro CPS turbo engine producing about 150 horsepower and perhaps 240Nm of torque.

Proton is also set to spend RM5 billion over the next 5 years on R&D efforts, which is about RM1 billion a year. Other efforts (as quoted in the report) include developing a small competitive car, acquiring diesel engines licensed from an international OEM (Fiat? Peugeot?) because of their popularity in markets such as India, hybrid and electric technologies, the possibility of a joint model with Lotus (spiritual successor to the Lotus Carlton based on a Proton maybe?), and the reduction of weight of Proton models.

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After many years of going around in circles talking to companies such as PSA Peugeot Citroen, Volkswagen and GM, Proton has finally ended up at a familiar place, Mitsubishi Motors. Proton announced to Bursa Malaysia today that it has entered into a product collaboration program with Mitsubishi Motors Corporation, Japan. The following is the scope of the product collaboration:

• A Development Agreement, to develop a new Vehicle Model for PROTON based on details of work, target specifications, job sharing and time schedule as determined by both parties (”Licensed Product”).
• A Licence Agreement, where MMC grants PROTON a non-exclusive license to use technical assistance and patents solely for the purpose of utilization of technical information for restyling, modification and improvement work, manufacturing of local parts, assembling, selling and after sales services / support of the Licensed Product to be sold under PROTON’s trademark and styling; and
• An Engineering Services Agreement, wherein MMC will provide the work and services for PROTON’s manufacturing of the Licensed Product.

StarBiz revealed today that the Mitsubishi vehicle to be provided to Proton is the new Lancer, which will be used to replace the Waja. A quick check with sources inside Proton revealed that the vehicle would pretty much be a Lancer with only minor changes to the design, even less than what Mitsubishi Taiwan has done to their version of the Lancer.

The Lancer Fortis is shown in the image above, just compare it to the original Lancer (chopped by Theophilus with Proton badges) shown below, it’s a world of a difference! So the good news is our version will likely keep the Lancer’s original aggressive looks.

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The new Lancer-Waja will likely be priced at a higher price point than the current Waja CPS, but lower than the Perdana. We’ll also get the GEMA series of engines that comes with the Lancer, though it’s not clear at this moment which one. The GEMA engine is available in 1.8, 2.0 and 2.4 liter displacements.

Other proposed areas that Mitsubishi and Proton are in discussions about include the rebadging of the Persona and the 2009 Proton MPV as a Mitsubishi in certain markets and the joint development of an A-segment hatchback (a new Savvy-sized vehicle), but when contacted by this blog, sources in Proton indicated these additional projects are at best only in discussion stages only, and not something confirmed.

In fact, an A-segment hatch may not be such a good area for Proton to venture into right now, given how price sensitive the A-segment market is. Maybe later, if Proton gains enough technical know-how on how to build a car cheaply and once it has enough economies of scale to price it low yet make a sufficient profit.

The only two car manufacturers enjoying success in that market segment are Suzuki and Daihatsu, who are experts in small cars. It’s very hard to profit and with the current condition of Proton’s economies of scale, I doubt Proton could create an A-segment hatch that could have the right features, quality and price to enjoy a decent amount of success whether in Malaysia or overseas.

I doubt even accounting for the potential units sold under the Mitsubishi badge could help out there as Mitsubishi themselves do not have much successful experience in that area.

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It looks like the new Proton MPV has shed some of that heavy masking and is now on the road with a little more details revealed now, though I think some of you probably don’t really need to see any more spyshots as there was a leak of a fully undisguised photo last week which Proton worked hard to remove from the internet wherever they can.

My friend Rkaru sent in these shots of this masked white Proton MPV. I believe the photos are clear enough for you to see some of the details on the MPV. The front headlamps are less masked now (or it could be just that these photos are of a decent resolution) so we can see that it uses a reflector lense instead of the more expensive projector type.

You also get to peek into some bits of the interior, not the dashboard, but I think not we can safely assume that Proton has decided to stay with a grey interior for the MPV.

During the Proton Technology Week the national car company exhibited the Proton MPV’s interior in a peek-a-boo box and it had a beige colour scheme. When asked about this, one of the designers said they had not decided on a colour scheme at that time yet, and I guess now they have!

Look after the jump for more of this set of Proton MPV spyshots.

Click here to read the rest of Spyshot: 2009 Proton MPV sheds some disguise

Proton launched the Proton Persona in Egypt last week shortly after the model’s launch in Saudi Arabia, and these launches will be followed by a series of launches in Oman, Qatar, Bahrain and Syria over the next two months.

Egypt has a population of 80 million and annual car sales in the country currently stand at 200,000 units a year, with the potential to touch 500,000 units soon. Proton first entered the Egyptian market in 2001 with the Proton Waja and the Proton Wira, and then launched the Proton GEN2 in 2006. The marque is distributed in the country by Alpha Ezz Elarab Co.

They have since sold about 5,500 cars in Egypt since 2001 which is less than 100 cars a month. Proton’s total exports to all 24 export countries including Thailand, Indonesia and Singapore currently stand at 2,000 cars a month. The company is also exploring the possibility of setting up a CKD assembly plant in Egypt which could be an assembly hub for the growing northern African market consisting of countries such as Morocco, Sudan, Algeria and Tunisia.

Despite increased international sales, exports are still a loss-making operation for Proton right now. The recently unveiled Q2 2008-2009 financial year results revealed that Proton made a loss of RM2.9 million for Q2 2008 for export markets.

The Q2 2008-2009 results also revealed that Proton had spent more money making cars (1.839 billion) than it earned selling them (RM1.838 billion, probably because of marketing efforts and the R&D costs of the new Proton MPV), but profited from RM53.4 million ringgit in “other operating revenue” which consists of activities such as aftersales.

Click here to read the full financial report.

Source, Source 2

Proton’s board of directors announced yesterday afternoon that they have renewed the contract of Proton’s managing director, ato’ Haji Syed Zainal Abidin Syed Mohamed Tahir.

Also announced are the national automaker’s financial results for Q2 of FU2008, a profit before tax of RM57 million compared to RM59 million in Q2 2007, thanks to increase in domestic sales volume and reversal of allowance for doubtful debt, but this was offset by provisions for anticipated raw material and components price increase and higher overheads.

Revenue was up to RM3.55 billion in Q2 FY2008 compared to RM2.45 billion in Q2 FY2007, and units sold were 84,565 units versus 62,485 units for the first half of the year.

Click here to read the full financial report.