Archive for Proton

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.

Click for enlarged image

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.

Click for larger image

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.

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%.

Source

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?