Proton in talks with Hindustan Motors for Indian contract manufacturing deal – annoucement expected in February?

Proton in talks with Hindustan Motors for Indian contract manufacturing deal – annoucement expected in February?More news has emerged about Proton’s anticipated move into the Indian market – the company is said to be in talks with Hindustan Motors, India’s oldest automaker, to sign a contract manufacturing deal in which it will be using HM’s platform to assemble its portfolio cars in India.

Reports indicate that an announcement regarding the tie-up is likely to be made by around end of February, and Proton is expected to use HM’s Chennai plant, which was initially established for the assembly of the Mitsubishi Lancer. It has also been speculated that the new contract manufacturing tie-up might be extended to HM’s ailing plants that are located in Indore and Uttarpara.

The Proton models that are expected to be initially launched in the Indian market are the Saga, Persona, Exora and Emas hybrid models.

According to an Indian daily, Hindustan Motors’ MD Manoj Jha was qouted as saying otherwise recently. “In the automobile business, there are all kinds of discussions with all sorts of companies at all points of time, but the discussions with Proton that you are talking about is not taking place.”

It has been more than a year since Proton has been mulling to enter into a contract manufacturing tie-up with an Indian firm. In previous years, the company had been in talks with the likes of Mahindra & Mahindra and the Hero group.

Looking to sell your car? Sell it with Carro.

Certified Pre-Owned - 1 Year Warranty

10% discount when you renew your car insurance

Compare prices between different insurer providers and use the promo code 'PAULTAN10' when you make your payment to save the most on your car insurance renewal compared to other competing services.

Car Insurance

Anthony Lim

Anthony Lim believes that nothing is better than a good smoke and a car with character, with good handling aspects being top of the prize heap. Having spent more than a decade and a half with an English tabloid daily never being able to grasp the meaning of brevity or being succinct, he wags his tail furiously at the idea of waffling - in greater detail - about cars and all their intrinsic peculiarities here.

 

Comments

  • comrade on Jan 10, 2011 at 11:52 am

    imagine proton in bollywood movies as the main character car…

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0
    • frossonice on Jan 10, 2011 at 12:21 pm

      Hehehe. You know, Tamil movies tie-up with Raijinikanth would do even greater wonder for Proton. Have you seen the Castrol ads with him in it? Far out!

      Like or Dislike: Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0
    • hangtuaha on Jan 10, 2011 at 1:53 pm

      lol, proton manufacturing practice + Hindustan= kantoi? lol

      Like or Dislike: Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0
    • Ganyang Malon on Jan 10, 2011 at 2:13 pm

      you mean as a bad guy car or bandit car?

      Like or Dislike: Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0
      • guru yahya on Jan 10, 2011 at 9:13 pm

        ada jugak indognesial ni menyibuk kat sini? Indog kete sendiri pun xde jgn bodoh sombong ye

        Like or Dislike: Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0
        • Rinnegan on Jan 10, 2011 at 11:48 pm

          @guru yahya:

          What can you expect from him, guru? This Ganyang Malon comes from a country who blamed their soccer loss to Malaysian “bomohs” and Malaysian fans utilising lasers.

          Like or Dislike: Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0
  • Ash Menon on Jan 10, 2011 at 12:08 pm

    Personally I think Mahindra would be a better option. They’ve got a more solid grasp on distribution networks. HM is a tad behind the times, from what I know. Good luck to Proton!

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0
  • Nakal on Jan 10, 2011 at 1:13 pm

    bollywood or whatever,

    time to moving out proton. the local market is just too unfair for you.

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0
  • Yea ……Uncle Samy value as the hero………hahahahaha…..

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0
  • jackspeed on Jan 10, 2011 at 3:27 pm

    next we will see an advertisement like peugeot 206, an indian guy wreck and hit his car to look like proton saga.

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0
  • China and India are where the action is.

    Proton is moving in the right direction – with Hindustan or any other reputable company. All the best Proton.

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0
  • guess how much they gonna sell a saga there?? Toyota etios 1.5 highest spec costs around RM46k…cant wait to know how they gonna price protons

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0
    • MoFaz on Jan 10, 2011 at 5:15 pm

      Persona H-Line is around RM35-37k in Arab, without tax. Not sure about tax in India though… I guess, if the price of Persona didn’t jump so much from the tax, then it is still competitive against the Etios. and Persona looks much better than Etios too…

      Like or Dislike: Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0
      • trust me..indian customers nvr go for looks…international manufacturers are flooding indian market with the best model suit for them..so no chance of P surviving there..

        Like or Dislike: Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0
    • it might be even lower….since india has not high excise tax like malaysia…its not proton fault if price in india cheaper than us…although in malaysia they given excise tax 50% discount

      Like or Dislike: Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0
    • Malaysia Memang Boleh on Jan 10, 2011 at 7:09 pm

      They will assemble the car there,obviously the price will go down.

      Like or Dislike: Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0
  • Hameed Koyakuti on Jan 10, 2011 at 4:21 pm

    P1 had tried to enter India soo many times….all with no light of success….
    It is just to competitive for P1, they are just not capable yet…..!!!!
    Just a check with the Export Dept. and u will know how LOW is the export volume this year (and the trend for past 5 years).

    P1 is just not competitive and not dynamic. I am not condeming them, but just merely asking them to do some soul searching…….P1 is not ready yet.

    Operating in India, China is not a laughing matter, if you screw up, they will sue you until you have nothing else to wear.

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0
    • MoFaz on Jan 10, 2011 at 5:27 pm

      Hameed, it’s not easy to enter any market. Do you think you can just step in any country and sell whatever you like? There’s a lot of bureaucracies involved, and every country have different requirements or conditions set for the manufacturers.
      Do you ever wonder why European makers tend to choose Malaysia (BMW, Mercedes, and VW are all here) rather than Thai, eventhough Thai is the Detroit of Asean? There’s something going on behind the curtain, and only them, who’re in the play/act/drama know better.

      Like or Dislike: Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0
    • when proton want to go out u kutuk, when they concentrate local market u complain n ask them to go out…..which 1 u wan….i mean for all who terase

      Like or Dislike: Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0
    • tikus on Jan 10, 2011 at 6:51 pm

      That true….Papa and Mama aka Govt cant protect u in the international market. Screw up like toyota with quality issue , kena sue “kau-kau”.

      Like or Dislike: Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0
  • thats wat u call risk n opportunity…u never know if u don even try

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0
    • With all due respect, if protong wants to venture, take risk, malaysia boleh and all of those crappy statements please do it without us the ‘rakyat’ subsidizing it. Thank you.

      Like or Dislike: Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0
      • give prove first that they using r subsidizing by us…..then u can talk

        Like or Dislike: Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0
  • I am sure Datuk Shah Rukh Khan would gladly drive a Proton. He could be an ambassador for Proton in India. Cheers

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0
  • BOBOI on Jan 10, 2011 at 8:03 pm

    hahaha…

    Very nice go to Bollywood enter Hindustan movies as Police car, sure cannot catch the bad guy forever la.

    Great for Super Villain movies where the Really Bad guy is so undestructible and use ultra fast cars, as the local Police chase them in a Proton Sawi.

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0
  • BOBOI on Jan 10, 2011 at 8:35 pm

    hahaha…

    try beat tata nano & suzuki alto mini cars with the crappy Sawi.

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0
  • meane on Jan 10, 2011 at 9:32 pm

    pib bil dil hai hindustani.. pib bil dil hai hindustani~

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0
  • JV with HM or Nissan? I think Nissan will be a better choice since the cars assembled in India with Nissan are potential for export. I don’t mean present Proton models.

    Proton needs to think local and small when going to India. Proton can’t service entire India so need to find a sponsor state where Proton will be welcomed to develop distributorships and provide good warranty, excellent service like 7 x 24 hrs service/repair in the state.

    Another area to look at is engine manufacture JV and development of R&D talents in India. No one car fits all countries.

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0
  • will-kill-for-exclusivity on Jan 13, 2011 at 2:14 pm

    hindustan motors is the worse partner u can choose from amongst the entire indian auto industry

    they have swallowed mistubishi for dead

    mitsu is still selling the 2nd generation pajero and 7th generation lancer with the same old antiquated engines

    no sign of the grandis, evo

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0
 

Add a comment

required

required