The Europestar RCR was officially launched in China on the 9th of January 2008 in Beijing. Europestar is a brand of Youngman Automobile Sales Co. Ltd., and the Europestar RCR is basically a rebadged Proton GEN2.
Youngman is confident of selling the 30,000 CBU units of Proton GEN2s within the 20 month delivery period, and has appointed 40 dealers to support the launch in terms of managing its sales, service and spare parts operations for the Europestar brand in China. CKD operations will begin soon after at Youngman’s plant in Jinan, which has an annual capacity of 300,000 units.
The Europestar RCR is targeted at small business owners, middle-income salaried workers and civil servants between the ages of 25-35 who Youngman expects to find the model stylish, comfortable and yet affordable. Youngman wants to capture 20% of the hatchback market in China within 2 years.
ahh..let time be the answer.. ;)
20% in 2 years? That’s quite ambitious. How big is the hatchback market in China?
aksMs said,
January 10, 2008 @ 7:03 am
20% in 2 years? That’s quite ambitious. How big is the hatchback market in China?
__________________________________________________________________________
no worries..proton quality is better than homemade chinese car..
Very potential market!! but likely selling price ~110K RMB, RCR competitor will be 206/Mazda2/Fit/ VW Polo/ Latio/ Swift….. so only choice is local assembly and reduce to below ~90K will be more aggressive to achieve tht target!! btw i just baught Polo with ~50K RM in china!!
3ds. Dunno, Dun Care, Dun want to know :P
Dogster – correction. You practiced 4ds. Dunno, Dun care, Dun want to know, (yet) Dogster-comments-in-a-Proton-Post.
China is a newly industrilized country with a HUGE population. Their cities have critical mass unlike in malaysia. Hence, market potential is there.
does anyone know how many booking they hv recieve so far?
was it launced aggresively through out China?
Who’s the guy in the photo?is it the China Transport Minister?
that guy maybe some AH LONG who gave pinjaman to Youngman.. Maybe dia bukan AhLong, dia cuma nak tolong.. hahahah..
owh that guys might be first gen2 buyer from china….
Hope that they can make it…
but that guy looks like malay le
“Youngman is confident of selling the 30,000 CBU units of Proton GEN2s within the 20 month delivery period, and has appointed 40 dealers to support the launch in terms of managing its sales, service and spare parts operations for the Europestar brand in China. CKD operations will begin soon after at Youngman’s plant in Jinan, which has an annual capacity of 300,000 units.”
————————————————————–
Wow! Target to sell 30,000 CBU units of Proton GEN2 within 20 month!? Means that sell 1500 units per month! Hmmm… wait n see. Maybe they have a good benchmarking when doing a SWOT analysis of marketing in China.
Err.. by the way, today in newspaper also state that Youngman interested to sell a Savvy in China market, perhaps this year… Err… hehehe… :D
Anyway, best of luck for PROTON!!
OMG some of you don’t have any idea that malay-looking guy is the Proton’s chairman Mohd Azlan Hashim. He’s the one who was responsible for not renewing TM’s contract.
orly? not bad. A hands on approach by top execs with regards to foreign relations is a good thing.
good, its time to adjust the NAP then.
well proton design are much better looking than most of the china car… i think proton can do it… let just wait and see… GOOD LUCK PROTON…
believed this would be a very gud year for Proton.. year of Rats rite for CNY ? ;) Insya Allah this 1429, we’ll see a gud rise up from Proton… anyway, All the best Proton!! ;)
suddenly i think again if proton will outsource the car parts to be done in china and import to malaysia.. CHEAPER but NO QUALITY… hope they did not think like that. no matter what the QC is, product from china is 0 quality. (my china friends agreed with me also)
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Posted – 14/08/2007 : 18:20:28 Show Profile Email Poster Reply with Quote
It’s a challenge for a company the size of Proton with 250,000 units a year to be able to make a car cheaply. They lack economies of scale which as you pointed out is as simple as not being able to get a cheaper price on batteries because their order is not as great as a company like Honda or Ford.
But they can try and one of the ways is to maximise the use of one platform, which they have been doing since the Waja. The platform costs a lot of develop but once you have done that part and if you use it for many different models, then you start to get cost savings. For instance, the Waja cost almost RM1 BILLION to develop but the new sedan, which uses a modified variant of the Waja platform, cost less than RM100 million.
One of the ways that people like Toyota save money is to have many common parts, again for economies of scale. In the early 1990s, when the Japanese automakers were having a crisis, Toyota did a intensive study to identify waste and duplication and they discovered that there were too many different steering columns and control stalks and reduced the number to a handful. It makes a lot of sense, especially in areas which the customer cannot see.
Proton also does this and the new sedan has at least 70% of carry-over parts (from the Gen2) and that means not only that the cost per unit can be lower but also instead of wasting money developing new parts, only some money needs to be spent to make the existing part better.
There are a lot of tricks to cut costs and the Japanese, especially, Toyota are masters at this. Proton has a lot to learn and if its people accept that they were misled before about ‘knowing it all’ and not needing the assistance of a more experienced company, then that’s a good step forward. Just a pity that so many years were wasted with this delusion.
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Posted – 26/08/2007 : 00:57:56 Show Profile Email Poster Reply with Quote
I’m sure most do read the news but the thing is, a lot of things have been promised before and not delivered. Even I myself feel misled when I was told that ‘the power windows have been tested to beyond normal life cycles so the power window problem is history, no more complaints should come’… only to find that within months of the Waja launch, power windows were failing. And when the Gen2 was launched, you will remember that many journalists and me included wrote things like ‘Proton has finally turned the corner’; ‘this is a great car’… only to have quality issues pop up and the Campro engine turning out to be disappointing in daily use.
So can you blame us for being sceptical? Kinghamsap’s famous line was ‘time will tell’ and Proton will just have to live through such negative perceptions until such time it can actually prove that it can deliver consistent quality. An absence of complaints or at least to a lower level like Perodua would begin to influence people’s perception. Before then, you cannot expect people to change how they feel about Proton just from news reports saying ‘we are now doing things differently’. The Gen2 came from a new plant, ‘built differently’ and what sort of quality did it have?
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Posted – 21/11/2007 : 08:32:54 Show Profile Email Poster Reply with Quote
quote:Originally posted by 100
If the deal is on, I dont think VW will be a Proton – Passat, Proton-Golf etc..etc..Just looking at P2 situation, is there any P2-Yaris, P2-Rush? Instead they will dump their soon to be retired model..
In the plan that VW had, they were not looking at just giving Proton some of their models to clone, as Mitsubishi did, but looking at Proton as a joint-development partner for future products the way Ford and Mazda worked on the Ranger and the Escape. Perhaps in the initial phase, due to the need for speed, one or two VW models would be adapted immediately but the longer term idea was that the two companies would develop new products and I think VW was looking at products for the Asian region.
quote:About JV..in my opinion, Proton can modelled Naza, Like what Naza did with Peugeot..Collaboration based on certain model..
So go back to that way of doing things, is it? Licence one model from someone else and then produce it for the next 25 years. Many years ago, I was talking to a guy in one of the big German component manufacturing companies about licensing deals. He told me that the company had deals in many countries and in some of them, the agreements had expired so the local partner no longer got new technology to upgrade the products. He said that whenever he went back to those countries and looked at the market, it was like time had stood still because they were still making the same old products and could not upgrade them as they lacked the expertise and knowledge.
Now, you may say that such a situation is what Proton has wanted to escape from, and TM’s strategy was to develop in-house technology to develop a car from scratch so that there would be no dependence on any foreign party which may, even for normal business reasons, end the partnership. He wanted to make sure Proton would have its own capability and not be ‘crippled’ if a partner left. After all, if you study the history of Toyota, you will see that they too chose the route of ‘learn yourself’ which contrasted with other Japanese carmakers who licensed models from British manufacturers as their first step.
But look at the auto industry then (1940s, 1950s) – it was not as competitive as today and there was the luxury of time to learn. Today’s environment is super-competitive and it’s a volume game and it needs Big Bucks because you need to be able to fund new model development which is not cheap. There is no time to learn on the job alone and succeed at the same time; one slip and you crash and Proton has come near that situation.
With other companies that have come close to crashing and seen the black hole of bankruptcy, there has been a rebound which has motivated them to success in later years. But there is a difference – they were never protected by the govt and whatever they did was on their own initiative. In other words, they faced realities which provided them real-world lessons.
Proton has never had to face the reality of the auto world and its political masters never understand this crucial point. The dominance that Proton had was imagined to be due to its own competence and growing capabilities when in reality, that was a misleading impression. Proton got to where it was because its competition was suppressed (via the tax and AP system), that’s all. It’s just like the son who got to become the MD of the company even though he failed SPM. Why? Because daddy owned the company and though there were other more capable people, he did not consider them. To the son, he thinks he is so great but when it comes to running the business, he is hopeless.
In family-run companies that are successful, the founder will put his children through the toughest conditions without helping them. Of course, there is the expectation that they will take over but they start at the bottom, they learn to be humble, they experience failures and they face realities. It equips them properly to run the business and take it further.
Anyway, we’ve always argued whether the government should treat Proton as a business or as a government tool to achieve greater industrialisation. You cannot have both because their objectives conflict with each other. The decision that has been made confirms that Proton is a tool, not a business entity.
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Posted – 22/11/2007 : 08:51:00 Show Profile Email Poster Reply with Quote
The sort of statements now being made by various govt officials about the ending of this long-drawn episode are really disgusting. They are portraying Malaysians as people who, when in need, go looking for help and then suddenly when they think they are okay, they just pull out, wasting people’s time. Also, this talk about how Proton is recovering based on its performance in the last quarter hardly justifies such a radical change of attitude and suggests that the decision-makers are ignorant about the auto industry and business. But then again, they are politicians and not businessmen and in as far as Proton is concerned, if it is necessary for it to go into the red, it doesn’t matter since ‘it’s in the national interest.’
Actually, we should not be stressing ourselves out over what happens to Proton.It’s the government’s company and if they choose to give it a direction that is, to the rest of the world, a misguided one that can lead it into the drain, so be it. The only unfortunate thing is that our money is being used to support that company.
What we only need to be concerned about is that the govt does not use unfair measures to restrict others from doing business. The 2nd Minister has been so considerate to say we should be allowed choices so let’s see him keep to his word. Or maybe like many dumb things he’s said, that’s just talk.
u do not need to paste all of it
just paste the damn links!!!
VPowerRacing said,
January 10, 2008 @ 11:03 am
Who’s the guy in the photo?is it the China Transport Minister?
——–
U think China built car on patriotic basis that it need their minister to “rasmi” the car! Only our country do that.
proton have 3 platforms already, hey,, thats good for various model developments,
The 30K units CBU is the last batch, down the road, all CKD or even copycat of China (including without paying royalty).
deepthroat: Please STOP copying and pasting forum postings from other websites here. I am not interested in aggregating whatever text is already available somewhere else. If you wish to share then just post a link to that particular forum thread, no need to have duplicate text.
i hope dis will bring income to proton…
wow 30,000 target..i think achievable if compare to other china car..like geely..
Out of topic. How exactly is Lotus relation with Proton? How come they is no development of a decent proton model or concept from them? Explain, anybody? Proton cannot rely on the LOTUS name to attract a market, they need to build up their own reputation. Wonder what the chinese market percepts when they get to know that their RCR is actual Proton and not Lotus…
I read in the newspaper that Savvy shall be next model export to China. The lowest Savvy selling in the world is in UAE with around RM 23K. Even if we hypothesize Savvy is sale at around RM 23K in China, the Cherry QQ basic selling in China is start from RM 9K ++. In Malaysia both car sale at same range. So, it is unlikely it will sale in China given the obvious price advantage by Chinese makes.
cyful said,
January 10, 2008 @ 3:06 pm
suddenly i think again if proton will outsource the car parts to be done in china and import to malaysia.. CHEAPER but NO QUALITY…
—————
So how good the original part(s)? Especially those supplied by cronies vendors. Previous VW audit (before VW-P1 partnership talk collapsed) shpw 90% of the parts does not met VW quality standard!
hello there:
anyone really think this car can sell in the 3rd world China? stop dreaming please
please have a look have Chinese think of this car !
http://translate.google.com/translate?u=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.autohome.com.cn%2Fcomment%2Fcomm.aspx%3Farticleid%3D32016&langpair=zh%7Cen&hl=en&ie=UTF-8
seems they know for tht price they can get a japan car.
even the curse are thinking this be vulgar. expensive and they do not want malaysians cars who think china is africa to slaughter the bulk of chinese people. they think youngman and proton are crazy or insane and this makes them nausea, therefore passing these garbage trucks.
pray its a success. Then pray proton go venture in more markets and pray that they don’t treat malaysians double standard with their products
So how good the original part(s)? Especially those supplied by cronies vendors. Previous VW audit (before VW-P1 partnership talk collapsed) shpw 90% of the parts does not met VW quality standard!
————————————————————-
this is facts or just another rumour
not only more expensive than japanese car, also, american and German cars!
that money can buy many B size car, ie, mazda 6
well so far in market original parts are more promising than the one bought from china. my uncle told me that china love to copy cat product, but what they cant copy is the material use to create the original product. They end up something which is not durable and then very cheap….
Good move. Sell our ‘unwanted’ at there. Stock clearance. Business minded.
price is almost same/expensive than Honda Civic/ Latio/New Mazda 323…
Wht reason may get China to buy this car?? Anti japanese car? No there is VW Bora/ Peugeot 307/ buick GM/ Hyundai Elantra..kia cerato…?
Will be another disaster to proton, same as the case many yrs ago.. sales Satria to Hungary and lastly only few units sold.. Why? coz the price is same as Mitsubishi Colt!!
Only time will tell.
While its good for Proton to get larger markets, I can’t loose the feeling that this is not sustainable.
China is a fast moving country. They are getting more and more capitilistic and the general population gets more materialistic by the day.
Proton/Yongman, may not be the brand that the average chinese aspire to, where the more affluent may rather get European luxury marks (You can see big Audis everywhere)….. It leaves to be seen if Proton can up the ante and spit out new models faster or it will be stale news to a fast moving market.
Perhaps Yongman is betting on some latent reservation against Japanese products, but then again, the new generation would not really care what happened 50 years ago.
andyisboy said,
January 10, 2008 @ 10:27 pm
hello there:
anyone really think this car can sell in the 3rd world China? stop dreaming please
please have a look have Chinese think of this car !
____
I believe.. there’s many malaysian basher here registering chinese forum and giving bad comment on proton to.. because it’s not proton really bad.. but they just hate proton in no matter what proton doing good is.
Dear MisterBenjo,
So how good the original part(s)? Especially those supplied by cronies vendors. Previous VW audit (before VW-P1 partnership talk collapsed) shpw 90% of the parts does not met VW quality standard!
————————————————————-
this is facts or just another rumour
———————————-
The fact on the finding from the previous TUV audit that only major OEM supplier for proton in AA rating and majority of small supplier score lower point. Of course this TUV rating was not accepted by almost the ‘reject’ supplier that it came in news their disagreement with the result.
However, when Dato Syed Zainal takeover from TM, the small supplier has been reorganized, merged and quality issue become important issue for him.
But the result from VW never make it to to public, so its hard to justify the news even base on on previous TUV audit.
China car sales rev up nearly 26%
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China_Business/IG10Cb02.html
just wonder how much Europestar RCR sales will be next year ?
nobodyatuk said,
January 10, 2008 @ 9:51 pm
Out of topic. How exactly is Lotus relation with Proton? How come they is no development of a decent proton model or concept from them?
_____________________________________
define decent.
decent to a family guy: comfort/reliability/bootspace/low TCO.
decent to a sporty youngster: 0-100times/horsepower/sports suspension bla bla bla.
andyisboy said,
January 10, 2008 @ 10:27 pm
hello there:
anyone really think this car can sell in the 3rd world China? stop dreaming please
please have a look have Chinese think of this car !
_______________________________________________
1) China is a NEWLY INDUSTRIALIZED COUNTRY. It is not a third world country. They have better pay equality than malaysia FYI.
2) I’ve been to china four times. And i dare say that the Gen2/RCR will look pretty good compared to the cars the chinese people are used to seeing.
3) Have you been to china? I dont think so… anyone who has been there in recent years will not call it a third world country*.
4) How do you know the Gen2 will not be competitive? I happened to ask a friend from mainland china, a Shanghainese dude, about the prices of international makes… I forgot the exact details, but the prices are about the same as malaysia. Yes, a Yaris/City/Camry is expensive in china too!
According to the link you gave, chinese people are gonna read posts on malaysian websites such as this one. Some chinese readers are going to read your comment about their country.
Good move Proton.
ezralimm said,
January 11, 2008 @ 11:58 am
andyisboy said,
January 10, 2008 @ 10:27 pm
hello there:
anyone really think this car can sell in the 3rd world China? stop dreaming please
please have a look have Chinese think of this car !
_______________________________________________
1) China is a NEWLY INDUSTRIALIZED COUNTRY. It is not a third world country. They have better pay equality than malaysia FYI.
2) I’ve been to china four times. And i dare say that the Gen2/RCR will look pretty good compared to the cars the chinese people are used to seeing.
3) Have you been to china? I dont think so… anyone who has been there in recent years will not call it a third world country*.
4) How do you know the Gen2 will not be competitive? I happened to ask a friend from mainland china, a Shanghainese dude, about the prices of international makes… I forgot the exact details, but the prices are about the same as malaysia. Yes, a Yaris/City/Camry is expensive in china too!
According to the link you gave, chinese people are gonna read posts on malaysian websites such as this one. Some chinese readers are going to read your comment about their country.
—————————————————————-
Yes I agree.
1) China is a NEWLY INDUSTRIALIZED COUNTRY. It is not a third world country. They have better pay equality than malaysia FYI.
>>> AGREED!!
2) I’ve been to china four times. And i dare say that the Gen2/RCR will look pretty good compared to the cars the chinese people are used to seeing.
>>> With the price selling at RMB130K, that is too much and competitor is Japaneses/ German/ France. Price after tax could be goes up to 140K++
Link to>> http://car.autohome.com.cn/3563/list.html
3) Have you been to china? I dont think so… anyone who has been there in recent years will not call it a third world country*.
>>> I’m work at China… market is there but the price should below RMB100K. So locally assembly is a must!!
4) How do you know the Gen2 will not be competitive? I happened to ask a friend from mainland china, a Shanghainese dude, about the prices of international makes… I forgot the exact details, but the prices are about the same as malaysia. Yes, a Yaris/City/Camry is expensive in china too!
>>> Price war at China Auto market is was really hot!! Car price here is far cheaper then Msia, and Shanghai car expensive coz of tax… different province with different tariff..
According to the link you gave, chinese people are gonna read posts on malaysian websites such as this one. Some chinese readers are going to read your comment about their country.
>> Ya correct so talk with low profile!!
ezralimm,
you fail to mention that there are dozens of MADE IN CHINA car models that are a rip off the design of European and Japanese that are selling at the same or lower price range than farking Proton. nobody is expecting Gen 2 to compete with Toyota, Honda, VW because Proton is simply not in that league but when competing on prices, there are other many cars that cost the same as Gen 2 in China. I find it annoying when people “get ignorant”
i guess they forgot the word ‘competition’.
shaif said,
January 11, 2008 @ 10:02 am
Dear MisterBenjo,
So how good the original part(s)? Especially those supplied by cronies vendors. Previous VW audit (before VW-P1 partnership talk collapsed) shpw 90% of the parts does not met VW quality standard!
————————————————————-
this is facts or just another rumour
———————————-
The fact on the finding from the previous TUV audit that only major OEM supplier for proton in AA rating and majority of small supplier score lower point. Of course this TUV rating was not accepted by almost the ‘reject’ supplier that it came in news their disagreement with the result.
However, when Dato Syed Zainal takeover from TM, the small supplier has been reorganized, merged and quality issue become important issue for him.
But the result from VW never make it to to public, so its hard to justify the news even base on on previous TUV audit.
—————————————————————
i know about that but focus what he said ,90%>This is only assumption and speculation….I dont believe anything but facts.
They suppose to enter china long time a go, very sleepy & too slow la, but anyway ok la to clear old stock. Now P1 recognize no need to xport to europe
anymore coz their car low quality, may be can fight with china car.
The company is not stupid to invest in million if this car cannot compete or sell at china…especially it was a china company itself…they confidently book 30k of the car from p1…that means they are very confident this car can be sell at china…don u agree that chinese people is good in business especially in making big money… they would not invest if they know that will not profit them…yeargh its true that some chinamen is doing same like some of us say p1 car is sucks but is it those basher represent the market itself…i think not even close…especially china market is so big and have good potential…its not same like us at malaysia….let see how p1 is doing at china…and lets chinamen be the judge of our product…
http://www.chinacartimes.com/wp-content/2007/10/arnieatyoungman.jpg
arnold the governator from usa has plans for the rebadged gen2, like the Eve Hybrid
bmpower said,
January 11, 2008 @ 9:27 am
I believe.. there’s many malaysian basher here registering chinese forum and giving bad comment on proton to.. because it’s not proton really bad.. but they just hate proton in no matter what proton doing good is.
—————
ezralimm said,
January 11, 2008 @ 11:58 am
According to the link you gave, chinese people are gonna read posts on malaysian websites such as this one. Some chinese readers are going to read your comment about their country.
————-
lolipop88 said,
January 11, 2008 @ 1:27 pm
>> Ya correct so talk with low profile!!
===========
By mere “believe” many bashers registering at Chinese website and give bad comment to P1 is an easy way of use of blame shifting tactic and in the state of denial. The reverse is true for blind defenders when you observe PT Blog, the moment blog about China makes like Chery or rebadged like Naza Sutera, all blind defenders will stick their neck out with “cocky parrot” talk about “no confident”, “fugly”, low quality products, etc.
So, lolipop88 statement is correct.
Our auto industry with local output of approximate 500K units (National and CKD) is just a fraction of China total output of anticipate up to 20 millions car by 2010.
Do you think low quality can sustain 20 million car production ??????? It must be the biggest joke and liar from blind defenders.
ali38hak said,
January 12, 2008 @ 5:06 am
http://www.chinacartimes.com/wp-content/2007/10/arnieatyoungman.jpg
arnold the governator from usa has plans for the rebadged gen2, like the Eve Hybrid
——————————————-
wut da…..
arnold the terminator looks gen2 furiously!! terminator and EVE, nice combo in CA.
Just ignore those bashers. They are just prima donnas who are waiting they fathers to buy them Brabus cars.
Just ignore those bashers, they are just prima donnas who are waiting their poor fathers to buy them Brabus cars…
wow im suprised to see the pic, can somebody explain what is the event?
car key_99, i find it so surprising how ignorant and untrue your comments are on proton.
“They suppose to enter china long time a go, very sleepy & too slow la, but anyway ok la to clear old stock. Now P1 recognize no need to xport to europe
anymore coz their car low quality, may be can fight with china car.”
for a start, i think its unaccurate to talk about the past. i believe comments should continue from the new management onwards. who cares what proton failed to do 10 years ago? today they are doing it. thats what matters. at least we are seeing new things and they are moving faster than they ever were in the past.
also, what old stock are you talking about? the gen2 is still on sale in malaysia, as well as the UK, australia, singapore, thailand, .etc. etc. and this gen2 sold in china is left hand drive. proton’s factory is still building these cars. please talk facts and not blind speculation.
bigfish, your comments continue to be very entertaining, i remember you posting just a few weeks back, that this whole china-proton deal is a hoax, and it will never happen, so what do you have to say about that now?
There is a very interesting connection between Youngman, Lotus/Proton and Zap of California.
First Lotus is developing on electric car for ZAP. The car is based on the APX design and should feature advanced batteries from ABAT of China.
http://www.zapworld.com/electric-vehicles/electric-cars/zap-x
Zap is very small company with a very “average” management and I don’t believe its pockets are deep enough to bring this car to the market. Meanwhile this project might be very profitable to Lotus. Basically they are being paid to develop a very exiting 100% electric car. They will gain a lot know how and prove once again that they are one of the finest car engineering company.
Anyway, in recent development Zap and Youngman have etablished a joint venture company “to manufacture electric and hybrid vehicles”. The head of this joint venture is Albert Lam (former CEO of Lotus Engineering).
Here is an interesting quote from the bio of Mr. Lam on Zap website:
“Mr. Lam recently stepped down from his position as CEO of Lotus Engineering to pursue new business opportunities between Lotus, its parent company Proton, and one of its key clients in China, Youngman Automotive Group. Mr. Lam was responsible for bringing Youngman, ZAP and Lotus Engineering together for a joint venture to develop, manufacture and market electric and hybrid luxury coaches, buses, trucks and passenger cars.”
http://www.zapworld.com/node/19
Well, Youngman has very exiting plan and I think the EVE hybrid is not very far from China’s road.
BanyakMasukWorkshop said,
January 13, 2008 @ 12:48 am
bigfish, your comments continue to be very entertaining, i remember you posting just a few weeks back, that this whole china-proton deal is a hoax, and it will never happen, so what do you have to say about that now?
————-
To the best of my knowledge, I never said “china-proton deal is a hoax” or the like or something implied the same. Care to pinpoint which comment(s) from me that have such thing from PT Blog “Statistics” section: –
http://paultan.org/stats/?stats_author=BigFish
Otherwise, I consider your statement is without justification, or “you have memory problems”, or aheem, you are “big mouth talk at your whim and fancy”!
nicolas, your writing implied Proton’s Gen-2 is just part of “OEM” to greater picture to Youngman?
Bigfish,
yes, Here is the way I see things.
Youngman wanted a product on the market as soon as possible and have a base to start with (they know time is against them and anyway they don’t have the capabilities (yet) to develop a new car from scratch).
Youngman always stated that their plan is to work with Lotus Eng. to design their own cars (based what has been designed for Proton). It seems they are very much interested in hybrid/electric cars. That is where zap get into the picture.
Zap has contracted Lotus to develop an electric car but Zap doesn’t have any production plant. They only sell china made electric 3-wheelers (Xebra) in the US. Zap needs to find a company able to build the ZAP-X.
Zap might also be interested to bring Youngman/Europestar hybrid cars (EVE?) to the US market. This is only pure speculation but ZAP is more an importer than a car manufacturer.
Lotus/Proton are the engineering/technology provider to this plan. For them, the risks are limited but the deal is potentially very rewarding. First they export Gen2-Campro to China and they find a partner willing to invest in Hybrid/electric tech. They might get their first customer for Campro/EVE and -why not- even export it to the US.
But as I said this is only pure speculation based on what is known of the ZAP/Youngman JV. time will tell.
Is youngman interest in lotus started because of the success of tesla elise?
very funny, why people said chinese product no quality? maybe all the countries were idiot i guess, to do businesses with china and use china products. why some people thinks that been to china few times assume knows everything? really funny, china must be very small i guess, ahahaha.
why this car don’t use proton name but europestar? maybe europe’s star are more famous than malaysia’s star…… i guess so since almost everyone knows david beckham. insteresting, just a car could creat so many issues….
I’m sorry to say, but selling Proton to China is pure suicide. These Socialist countries will suck dry everything from Proton and then disconnect Europestar from Proton. Proton will eventually lose everything to China. I know, because I was well-versed about trading with China/Vietnam/North Korea. If you dare to invest in their land, please prepare to lose your whole investment to them. You CAN’T control their economy, but they CAN control yours.