Archive for Proton

An unnamed source informed national news agency Bernama that the proposal to renew the contract of current managing director of Proton Datuk Syed Zainal Abidin Syed Mohamed Tahir has been presented to the Prime Minister and they were only waiting for his decision on the matter now.

It seems that the matter of top executives in Proton have to go through several stages of approval including Investment Committee of Khazanah Nasional Bhd, the Second Finance Minister, and the Prime Minister.

The source added that Syed Zainal would most likely get his contract renewed. I’m not sure what Pak Lah is waiting for.

Source

The Proton Persona is now in Saudi Arabia, making it the third Proton model offered by Proton’s Saudi Arabian distributor Al Rashed & Al Thunayan Auto Co. The first two models offered there are the Proton Waja and the Proton GEN2, and after the Proton Persona will soon come the Proton Saga.

Last I checked, Proton’s distributorship contract with Al Rashed & Al Thunayan Auto Co is for 5 years beginning the year 2006, and involves a volume commitment of 2,400 units for 2008. They hope this will grow to between 4,000 to 5,000 units annually in the future.

Youngman Automobile’s Europestar brand has just launched its second offering in the China market, the Europestar Jingyue, also called the Europestar Persona. It debuts at the 2008 Guangzhou Auto Show this week. It’s pretty much our Persona with Europestar badges, powered by the 1.6 liter Campro engine. No specs have been revealed so far.

According to Chinese publication northeast, Lotus is working with Youngman to develop more Europestar models which include a larger car, an SUV and an MPV.

Look for more shots of the Europestar Jingyue after the jump, though they aren’t much other than Proton product photos with the Europestar badge photoshopped on. Even the product photo of the left hand drive interior was just flipped horizontally as you can see from the gear shifter area – the D, 3, 2 and L are flipped.

Click here to read the rest of New Europestar Jingyue based on Proton Persona

An artist’s impression by maru

Reader deanfiero_returns sent in another video of the Proton MPV that he spotted at Putra Heights last week, and it seems that the MPV has been sighted in the area quite frequently for 3 consecutive days. He also claims the MPV was quite fast to accelerate way from his Proton Waja 1.6, despite having about 3-4 occupants in it. The video is quite shaky at first but later there is a close-up, including a shot of the Proton MPV travelling next to what appears to be a red Perodua Kelisa towards the end. Useful for a size guesstimation. Watch the video after the jump.

Click here to read the rest of Proton MPV spotted in Putra Heights!

According to Deputy Finance Minister Datuk Ahmad Husni Hanadzlah, Proton is currently operating at a “break-even” level and needs to be manufacturing an additional 100,000 cars a year more than its current 150,000 cars output.

He also added that Proton is targeting at least a three-fold improvement in terms of economies of scale by the year 2015. By then if things go as planned, 60% of its revenue stream will come from export sales.

I’m not really sure how these figures are calculated… “break-even” could mean “surviving”, at least in terms of supporting all its intensive overseas marketing activities. We’ve so far seen launches in countries like South Africa, China, etc, and these marketing activities are vital to build brand awareness and see any significant increase in export sales in the future.

It’s no secret that Proton’s current volumes don’t justify self-developed models. A shorter-term target would be 40% of revenue to come from exports by 2010, let’s see if they manage to achieve that before thinking about 60%.

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The Edge Daily has a sources story regarding the future of Proton’s top management team. According to the report, it is possible that Datuk Syed Zainal Abidin Syed Mohamed Tahir may leave when his contract as the managing director and CEO of Proton expires by the end of this year.

Two potential new candidates for the Proton board were named – Tan Sri Abdul Rahman Omar and Datuk Abdul Razak Dawood, although the report did not say whether any of these two would become the new managing director if Syed Zainal left.

Tan Sri Abdul Rahman has many years of experience in the national automotive industry, having held the position of DRB-HICOM executive director from February 2006 until December 2007 and chairman of EON from February 2006 to July 2008. He was also the managing director of Perodua from May 1997 to April 2004, and a director of Proton and EON from 1991 to 1996 and 1989 to 1996 respectively.

As for Datuk Abdul Razak Dawood, he is said to be possibly the new head of Proton’s international operations, but wasn’t this recently filled in by ex-Audi man Claudius Meynert? Or is this a different kind of international operations?

Why is Syed Zainal leaving and will Proton be able to continue its slow but steady recovery plan without him? Did he get a better offer from somewhere where he is allowed to perform more effectively without having to struggle with vendors? I can bet you that he must have had a hard time at Proton, at one point even resorting to a quality control campaign that urged the public to contact him directly to report any issues. I am quite sad to hear this possibility that he may not be around to launch the new Proton MPV.

When Syed Zainal was appointed as managing director, Datuk Kamarulzaman Darus was appointed as director of manufacturing. Kamarulzaman has already left Proton to become Naza’s director of manufacturing.

Both Tan Sri Abdul Rahman and Syed Zainal has one thing in common – they both used to hold top positions in Perodua, with Syed Zainal previously holding the executive director post at Perodua. Will Tan Sri Abdul Rahman be the new man at the helm of Proton?

Proton filed the design of the new Proton MPV with the UK Intellectual Property Office on the 24th of October 2008 and it was approved on the 4th of November 2008. We can now see in full detail of how the new Proton MPV will look like, though it’s only the low resolution sketches that are available from the public UK IPO website. It looks pretty much similiar to the images of the model that appeared to be snapped in a Proton facility. Everything matches, including the chrome bar at the rear. The Proton MPV is scheduled to be released in early 2009.

For more spyshots and details, please visit the related links listed below.

Related Posts:
Proton MPV exclusive initial details revealed!
SPYSHOT: Proton MPV next to a Nissan Grand Livina
SPYSHOT: Proton MPV on the road
VIDEO: Not one, but TWO Proton MPVs on the PLUS highway
VIDEO: 2009 Proton MPV on the MRR2
Undisguised Proton MPV spyshots

Thanks to moha774 for the tip!

These two shots were snapped on the NKVE by reader Reza, who happened to be on the same route as the MPV from the Jalan Duta toll until the ELITE exit.

Click for enlarged image

What’s interesting about the shot above is the fact that the Proton MPV is right behind a silver Nissan Grand Livina, who Reza said appeared to be travelling together with the Proton MPV. This allows us to estimate the size of the Proton MPV as compared to the Nissan Grand Livina. An estimation shows that the Proton MPV is slightly larger than the Nissan Grand Livina, but we can’t really be 100% sure about this as there could be some perspective errors.

Click for enlarged image

This second shot shows the LEDs of the Proton MPV’s rear taillamps lighting up.

The MEM-engineered Proton Satria Neo S2000 made its rally debut at the Rallye Antibes Cote d’Azur leg of the 2008 European Rally Championship in the South of France, piloted by Bryan Bouffier and co-driver Xavier Panseri. During the race, it managed to reach the highest position of sixth place before settling down at 18th place with a stage time of 00:02:45.4.

“The Satria was fantastic, really predictable and comfortable to drive and with really good engine power, I am looking forward to driving it again,” said driver Bouffier. The team encountered some teething problems with the car which is said to be normal for a first race. The car will continue to be tweaked over the next few months.

Apparently the Satria Neo S2000 in full rally trim has the smallest front and the lowest roof height of any homologated S2000 car. Its driver and co-driver seats are fixed at the rear-most possible mounting positions to achieve the best weight distribution.

The 2.0 liter engine complies to S2000 specs and is derived from the 1.8 liter engine from the Waja 1.8X. It produces 278 horsepower at 7,600rpm, with a usable powerband of between 5,500 to a screaming 8,500rpm. This engine is mated to an Xtrac 4WD six-speed sequential transmission.

For more information about the car visit the related links below:

Related Stories:
More MEM Proton Satria Neo S2000 videos
MEM Proton Satria Neo Super 2000
Proton Satria Neo Super 2000 Touring Car
VIDEO: MEM Proton Satria Neo Super 2000

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The Proton MPV has been spotted yet again – this time not just one but two of them traveling at the same time on the PLUS Highway. This video was shot by reader crash and as it was shot from the passenger side, he was able to turn the camera around abit more as the car he was in passed by the two Proton MPVs so that we can see a little more of how the front looks like. Still not as clear as we’d all hope to try to make out details but we are able to judge better the general shape of the front of the car from the angle in this video. Look after the jump to watch the video.

Click here to read the rest of VIDEO SPYSHOT: Not one, but TWO Proton MPVs on the PLUS Highway!