Malaysian NGV Sdn Bhd is in talks with Proton on equipping Proton models such as the Proton GEN2 with NGV kits for the export market. These cars would be marketed to countries where NGV is a mainstream fuel, like Pakistan.
No word about offering the NGV Proton vehicles to the local market though. NGV is still pretty hard to find here. I’m sure everyone has at least seen once in their lives a long queue of taxis lining up and the sole NGV pump at a petrol station. Even outside the petrol station, taxis queue up and park by the roadside with the engines off, waiting for their turn to get more gas.
Malaysian NGV plans to set up 100 more NGV stations around the country. Their aim is about 250,000 NGV cars on the road by 2010.
StarBiz reports Proton shares have dropped from RM8.35 to RM7.90, making it the second highest loser on the Bursa Malaysia yesterday.
Traders was worried by the announcement that Proton was interested in buying two Volkswagen platforms to rush out the production of 2 new cars to curb falling sales. They said it made no sense for Proton to buy the platforms since they were heading for a technical collaboration or stake transfer in the first place. This implicated the collaboration might not happen.
HLG Research has flagged Proton shares as buy, as these shares are expected to soar up later if any announcement / further development of an alliance with Volkswagen AG.
HLG analysts also believe that the Q1 loss is partly caused by MV Augusta, which is expected to turn around only in 2007. The report also said Proton also carried 30,000 cars in stocks (these are the ones you see in photos of Proton stockyards) which would affect earnings if not cleared by year-end.
October 24, 2005 @ 5:30 pm
· Filed under Local News
Looks like we consumers will not be affected much by the adjustments in the way fuel is sold with credit cards at petrol stations.
Banks have agreed to reduce the charge imposed on credit card transactions at petrol stations by 0.3 percent to 0.95 percent. It was previously 1.25 percent. Petrol companies have also agreed to increase commission of 6.17 sen per 1 litre of petrol to 6.66 sen. Commission for diesel will go up from 2.05 sen to 2.44 sen per litre.
However, banks will stop giving bonus points to petrol purchase transactions for their credit card customer loyalty programs to offset the loss in revenue with the 0.3 percent cut in transaction charge.
The bottom line: Prices remain same for petrol purchase using credit cards, but you won’t get credit card reward points for them (this does not mean Bonuslink and Real Rewards).
There’s new colour option for the Proton Savvy on the road. Looking back at my blog comments, one of my readers had already seen it as far back as early September. I saw one for the first time this morning at Taman Connaught. The colour is something like a metallic apple green, something like the Perodua Myvi’s. I have a photo of it at home, will post it once I get home. At the office now. There were five colours if I remember. We know four now. I can’t remember the other one until I get home. *frust*
October 24, 2005 @ 9:28 am
· Filed under Local News
Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Minister Datuk Shafie Apdal announced that motorists purchasing petrol at stations with a credit card would have to pay more for their petrol. He said a new formula was being devised to balance out the credit card charges currently being born by the petrol stations.
Let’s hope it’s nothing more than the 1.25% commission charged by banks. In fact since the costs should be shared by the motorist and the station, it should be exactly half of that. It would be a blatant and obvious rip off if it wasn’t.
Proton R3 Amprex’s Lotus Exige 300RR almost achieved victory in the G2 category of the Zhuhai FIA GT championship, but due to a fuel leak problem they lost the title to Belgian Racing.
The teams were close, but the Exige 300RR had fuel leak problems that forced the car to enter the pits four times instead of only one time as planned, according to Tengku Djan Ley. Oh well boys, better luck next time.
The Edge reports that Proton is looking into purchasing two Volkswagen platforms to produce it’s own versions for the local market under the Proton badge. After the purchase, design and development would take an additional year.
The Daihatsu Be-Go is the production version of the Daihatsu D-Compact 4×4 which I’ve blogged about before. From concept to production in such a short time. The D-Compact 4X4 was shown at the 2005 Frankfurt Motor Show, and months later it’s already shown as a production car at the 2005 Tokyo Motor Show.
UPDATE: Perodua has announced that a new Kembara will be launched in mid-2008. It is expected that the new Perodua Kembara replacement will be based on the Daihatsu Bego/Toyota Rush. Click here for more details.
The Mercedes Benz F600 Hygenius Concept is a research vehicle by Mercedes Benz powered by a forced inducted fuel cell hybrid powertrain. With fuel cell technology employed, emissions is zero and consumes the equivalent of 2.9 liters per 100km.
Malaysian NGV Sdn Bhd is in talks with Proton on equipping Proton models such as the Proton GEN2 with NGV kits for the export market. These cars would be marketed to countries where NGV is a mainstream fuel, like Pakistan.
