Proton Holdings Berhad has signed a joint venture (JV) agreement with the Lotus Group and China’s Goldstar Heavy Industrial to further expand the presence of the Lotus brand in the People’s Republic of China. Utilising incentives offered by the Fujian Provincial Government, the agreement will witness “an acceleration of the development of Lotus cars in the premium sports segment in China.”
Under the joint venture agreement, a new company will be established with the aim of “undertaking research and development (R&D) activities in the use of efficient and advanced technology.” Said company will also then be tasked to manufacture and market Lotus-branded cars as well as provide after sales support.
“The automotive market in China is the single largest in the world today, and is still growing, therefore it is only natural for an established iconic company like Lotus to embark upon the possibility of expansion, venture into the market and seek the available opportunities, in light of the keen interest shown by the many enquiries received thus far,” said Datuk Abdul Harith Abdullah, CEO of Proton.
Lotus has stated that it will continue to produce its line up of sports car exclusively at its Hethel plant in England. Earlier this year, Proton inked a three-way agreement between Goldstar and the authorities in the Fujian province to set up a production base for Lotus-badged vehicles.
Partnerships between the Proton and Youngman names began years ago with the Youngman-Lotus joint venture. From that co-op, the Proton Gen 2 and Persona models were rebadged as the Youngman Lotus L3 hatch (Gen 2), L3 sedan (Persona), L5 (stretched Gen 2) and T5 (based on the Gen 2’s platform).
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China already flooded with cheap cars around. Cronies better lick some Clever China man’s boot to get sales order B4 they close down.
It is solely because of Proton that 30 million people in Malaysia suffer. Everybody’s biggest payment per month is their cars as we are paying overpriced cars. Don’t know why Malaysians are excited about Proton and their JV with China or their Bangladesh plants/factory.
You see, in the 80s or even in the early 90s, you can get a brand new Nissan 130Y or a Toyota Corolla for RM20,000. Now, the same car is RM139,000.
In truth, the past 30 years, car prices have come down a lot globally and have NOT gone up due to inflation. It has come down due to economies of scale achieved by car companies. This is proven by the fact that you can get a brand new purely Japan made top spec 10 airbag Toyota Camry 2.5 in the US for US$22,000. That is about RM60,000. The normal B segment car like the Almera is sold in the US for US$9,999. (RM30,000). Mind you, this is after Toyota and Nissan of the US has made their margin and profits and the US government has collected taxes and duties from Nissan and Toyota. The direct from factory prices is far cheaper. UMW will get the above 2.5 Camry for US$15,000 from their principal in Japan. As our Camry is CKD, the price is even lower than that.
So, in actual fact, most Malaysians can enjoy cheap and reasonable cars but because of Proton, all the other car prices have been raised up tremendously to protect Proton. Malaysians have already suffered so much. For 30 years, 30 million people suffer so much. We struggle paying for our high car prices all because of one man’s dream of benefiting his friends and relatives and forcing the dying Proton to live with billions of our LHDN money, money which could be used to build more schools and hospitals.
If we did not have Proton sucking money from LHDN, each state can have an addition 10 fully fledged government hospitals and 10 fully fledged government schools every 10 years being built. But all our LHDN money go to the failing Proton. Every year government gives hundreds of million to Proton as form of grants. Every other year, Proton ask RM billions in help. Recently, even under private hands also (DRB) Proton asked the government to give them free few RM billions from LHDN.
Proton also cost us hundreds of billions in ringgit in investments from car companies who moved to Thailand and Indonesia. Car companies got fed up with Malaysia’s MITI for protecting Proton and telling other companies what to price their cars. They got sick and tired of the AP system and how genuine brands cannot get enough APs to import their cars in (like Mercedes, BMW and Honda).
They thought that if they set up their brands and plants in Malaysia, they knew they had to give 30% of their hard earned company free away as well as being told by MITI what to price their cars. They all moved their operations to Thailand making it the AutoCity of the world.
Recently GM announced that they rolled out already 1 million cars from Thailand. Imagine if GM was in Malaysia and we taxed GM RM10,000 per car. Calculate that with 1 million cars. Just from GM alone, we lost Billions in USD. Imagine what will the amount be from other car companies if they had set up in Malaysia?
Because of Proton, we lost hundreds of billion of ringgit in investment and trillions of ringgit from jobs lost. If Malaysia was the autocity of Asia, hundreds of thousands of jobs would have been created for Malaysians. We lost all that. Trillions of Ringgit and hundreds of thousands of jobs. Now, Thailand is benefiting from this trillions lost.
Car companies are flocking to invest hundreds of billions in Thailand despite Thailand being an unstable government, unstable economy and full of bomb blastings and terror.
Yet, global car companies still prefer Thailand.
All because of Proton.
Already Proton is so low quality. Now campur China low quality, aiyooo, what combination!
Perfect match made in heaven. LoL!
Where got 130Y for 20k at that time? Even 10 years Corolla was 17k!
Blame p1 for your miserable life? Work hard lor
Bradder Reality Check,
you must be sadly mistaken.
Heaven is so pure…that no lies,”awesome build quality” products,no hanky panky,no shit,no corrupted cronies,no lying CEOs or politians can EVER set foot upon its gold littered streets.
It is a match made in the abyss.
Lotus is originally pure like heaven but got “contaminated” by Proton. Sad
When Proton can no longer con Malaysian as they did for last 30 years, they are trying their luck on the Chinese now.
Safety quality Preve ady 5 star Aussie NCAP, while Vios only Asean NACP 4 star
Low quality is Toyota!
You’re comparing B segment with C segment? Saga got only 3 stars Asean NCAP
Proton is even more low quality!
Proton rebadge to Lotus? Who will buy this crap? The Chinese wouldn’t even touch this. Just leave this crap to the Bumis in Bolehland lah, since they like to support Proton. They can even rebadge it themselves if they like
How you know? Before Hyundai/Kia also dun get good market in USA
Racist
Weii.. Alot of apek and macha also use proton la.. WTF u shouting about.. No money meh!! No money by local car la.. Bodoh punya bangsat!!
You lagi bodoh punya bangsat. A lot of apek and macha use proton is because of the perlindungan. Without the perlindungan, see who will buy proton except a few supporters. You only know how to use tax money to force us to buy proton. Ini dipanggil “patriotic” kah? Ptuih!
The name Proton has regressed so much in the auto world over the years that only rural folks are attracted to this heal of scrap metal. Malaysians are forced to buy Proton that’s only because they couldn’t AFFORD any foreign cars, but some retarded folks in this forum think that there are genuine interest from prospective buyers.
Those who glorify Proton shouts the loudest in here, “beli keta tempatan, hidung kembang perut buncit, Proton kebanggaan Malaysia”, but when quality issues start popping out from their cars, they whine like a little sorry biatches they are…
Woaa hoo… main kasar brader, accusing bumis, it sound like the bumis are to be blame for higher car price…purely racist comment.
…and in the 1920’s you could buy a brand new Ford T for less than US$1000!
That’s less than RM3600 for a brand new car!
It’s good that Proton can venture overseas. The faster Proton returns to good profitability and becomes competitive globally (or at least, regionally), the faster we get a shot at getting to buy our own dream cars at reasonable price.
BS! For 20 years it never profited why do you think Malaysia has to wait longer until Proton makes a profit so that the rakyat can buy cars at reasonable price? Why do the rakyat has to suffer for Proton’s incompetence? Just close down the company for the sake of the rakyat!
All bcos of Malaysians stupid, tats y suffer
Take back this fake shit to where it came from. We chinaman don’t want your Proton rubbish. You can balik kampung and tanam jagung
Walao, if that’s their idea of Lotus regaining composure in the car market, that’s the last thing they should do. Proton quality passenger cars sold around the world. Initial sales would be good but because of the relatively bad quality, fit and finish, more complains and worse still, a more destroyed perception of Lotus cars would be apparent. Then, fixing the public’s perceptions of Lotus later on would be filling the cracks of an already sinking boat.
Don’t play play d. Sell it to a more capable parent though, I think not many want Lotus now.
China has sentiments over Japs. Only time will tell
Don u know export model all get 1st class material?
we getting cheap rubbish back in msia
Proof?
Watch your words. It’s libelous without proof…
Don’t think that’ll happen Groosfraba… It’ll be like the Chevrolet situation with cheap poor quality small car and still an awesome Corvette to show for…
Aiyo last time P1 supporter keep criticism china brand,
Now Proton needs “joint venture” with China brand.
P1 fans don’t be to proud and arrogant next when start comments!!!
It’s actually primarily because of China’s legislation that Proton made a JV with a China company. The laws require that any non-Chinese (as in, not from the country of China. Proper term.) automaker to have a local partner (thus, joint-venture) in order to operate within the country. This applies to every automaker. For example, Toyota has 2 Chinese partners, which results in 2 versions of the Corolla being sold concurrently in the country.
Refer to:
http://paultan.org/2014/04/20/gallery-toyota-levin-chinese-market/
Thats his point, what PROTONGSC means is your P1 supporter arrogant attitude and not complaint on P1.
I see p1 bashing like no tomorrow. Maybe they are the ones who criticise china cars
Nope, most of the people who criticise China cars are P2 and T bashers as they always say you tak suka, you keluar and balik tongshan. Now, P1 can balik kampung as tongshan people don’t want your car
Since when p1 supporters make critics on china cars? Failed generalization at its best!!!!!
This is very reassuring news. I wish them all the best !
As for Youngman, it appears their partnership with Lotus has ended. There is no reported March 2015 sales data for the Youngman Lotus L3 (Proton Gen-2 and Persona in China). It appears that either Youngman has stopped selling them after 7 years, or that they’re selling them without consent (illegally) from Lotus. Don’t forget, this is China after all, they’re not particular about petty things like copyright and legal matters.
So far, 2015 is shaping up well for Proton; Potential Indonesian national car with Proton as their platform. Confirmed Proton factory in Bangladesh. Potential entry into Indian market. Confirmed development of new cars for Chinese market.
I’m glad Proton is focusing on markets where they actually have a real chance at succeeding, instead of places like Australia and the U.K. where people tend to shun cheap brands like Proton. That’s not to say Proton shouldn’t care about developed markets, I’m just saying Proton should start with the less challenging markets first to build capital, confidence and economies of scale. First things first, Proton needs money, they need to sell more cars.
“First thing first, Proton needs money”
Hahahaha! Macai like you really like to day dreaming against the reality. MITI still refuse to give that 1.7 billion kah? Pokai joke indeed.
But the biggest joke is none of you macai buy Proton in Langkawi anyway. Hahahaha! Woohoooh. I need more oxygen gas please!
Why have to think about Langkawi? You dun buy cars there pun
China may not be an easy market, they need good local partner.
I don’t know what Goldstar can offer, but they should’ve improved relationship with Geely beyond signing MOU. It could’ve lead them into tapping Volvo’s Drive-E powertrain
do they realise this will dilute the goodwill the brand has? they should stop at ‘Ride & Handling by Lotus’.
Proton could be more welcoming than Toyota in China.
Real Lotus is welcomed but Proton rebadge as fake Lotus is not
Who cares, Lotus is under p1
If Proton wants to destroy the Lotus brand then it’s ok
Youngman are using brand of Lotus for marketing advantage instead of Proton brand and taking exiting Proton models rebadged with Lotus brand. If sales Proton rebadged works in China then export model of Proton should be Lotus rebadged for Australia, UK, and asian countries.
But Lotus branding has been sport and racing not into mass market cars. I hope Lotus UK design team and engineers, has to say about Youngman design team of the choice for Lotus rebadged cars and choice engine used.
Any bad results by Youngman choices of design and engine will have affect Lotus branding. I hope Lotus has considered on huge reputation damage would affect them more and then Youngman mass market did not work out.
I wish the best for CEO of Lotus and Lotus team in UK come to common ground of accepting mass marketing Lotus cars with quality, service and engineering precision. Lastly since Lotus team (UK) and Youngman in collaboration not mentions in the news, it too early to tell till this agreement may work.
I think LOTUS has pretty much no say in this since they already sell their Soul to Proton.
Everyone can pretty much knows how a crap Gen-2 with an ancient Campro and dodgy gearbox performs. You don’t need to perform any tests to know the results.
LOTUS can forget about any hope of getting their reputation back in China.
Hopefully 3rd time lucky for Proton.
JV with Youngman considered as a failure to me. Not forget to mention the no where to be seen JV with Huatai Motors during Syed Zainal era.
Many memorendum were signed yet we never seen even one successful JV or overseas project by Proton.
Insanity = Keep repeating the same thing again and expect the same result.
But this time diff company
Rebade here, rebade there, in the end it’s till a Proton. Why don’t use the name “Proton” but instead have to fake it to “Lotus”? The name “Proton” so shameful meh?
Sell here sell there in the end Lexus is still a Toyota. Why not using Toyota name? The Toyota name is jamban not luxury meh?
Proton’s name is jamban, not sports car meh? Oh… i forgot, there’s a car called Proton Jumbuck, which really sounds like Jamban. Haha
ha ha,… go tell that to the Aussie who drives one , why dont you.
Yes. It’s pretty shameful. Deswei need the Lotus brand.
with qoros being so strong, good luck proton…u have no chance
That’s a car to watch out for, the Xiaomi of car.
Having bettered Volvo V40’s Euro NCAP crash test, they really can offer safety, modern direct injection powertrain at an affordable price.
Qoros is Volvo of China, oh wait, Volvo also Chinese, so now Chinese cars are safest in the world? Oooh, butthurts gon feel the buuuuurn
Don’t tokok. Our Proton is the safest in Malaysia and some say the world. How can we lose to the Chinese?
I agree that that this will actually have a negative perception of Lotus. Just look at the two cars, doesn’t even look like a ‘Lotus’!
But then again, they badged a Persona as a Lotus and didn’t do harm. Hmm…
Proton = most disgusting shit crap junk in the world.
Proton should be renamed to Dung.
Dung Iriz, Dung Exora.
I bet no Bangladashi will buy this piece of shit.
OMG… damn you, dun talk cock here
Perodua = most disgusting shit crap junk in the world. Famous car commentators have criticized： – Perodua (automaker from Malaysia) always plunder the people’s life and money, Malaysians really do not know how to buy a decent car.
I bet porcine people will buy shit happens Perodua and R.I.P
China car buyers preference/ trend study:
Cars = mostly Volkswagen sedans
SUVs = mostly Great Wall HAVAL series and Volkswagen Tiguan
MPVs = mostly Wuling Hongguang and Changan Honor
Good luck Proton. Welcome to the world’s biggest car competition, the China car market. No tongkat, pure open fight. Winner takes all.
The world’s biggest car market is by far NOT the toughest. It is big purely because of population. The recently gotten rich Chinese middle class have an appetite for foreign brands Especially in recent years where RMB is so strong. Anything with a European/American brand can sell there if the brand makes an effort marketing themselves properly.
What car is everyone talking about? All I see is a china doll in a bath towel…..
Where’s the pic?
I just hope Proton will take this advantage to make a coupe version of Preve, and I believe the sales will be hot-cakes..
that girl not deserve to be next to that car at all!!!
Nice… The model of course, not the car
Huh? No women above, unless you like those men!
ROTFL
You slow, you don’t get to see. Already changed pic. Now only men pic for gay like you!
OMG….not this APX photo again???!!
how many times the photos and the JV story has been recycled??
Hahaha…Suddenly change photo Gen2 to APX.
Better keep actual car photo than imaginary photo, no matter how boring it is. Kah kah kah.
easy
its about rebadge, jv with honda, rebadge honda
jv with proton , rebadge the proton
Again, talk talk talk… Juz talk coxk.
Nothing new
from whats proton has “achieved” in Thai(Detroit Asia) & Indon(Toyota the king), we can guess how it will perform in China(more than 100 local car makers)….
just keep on SS Proton! LOL
Tak habis-habis with the APX picture. Which KLIMS this pic first appear? 2006?
Dear Paul,
I am tired of reading comments about proton. Even the stories were not about proton, somehow some MF were able the dragged proton into it. The came the bashers, and followed by the supporters. They kept repeating the same arguments all over again.
When paultan featured the story about ferari, some MF again dragged proton into it, blaming proton his lack of money, hence couldn’t afford a ferari.
Please MF, stop it. Get a life.
put proton badge on lotus cars n sell it cheap here..ok what..
Banyak machai yg cakap proton banyak guna duit rakyat kepala hotak kau..perutdua tu lagi terang mkn duit kerajaan bapak segala penipu toyota…daihatsu…
Mana Ah Beng?.. say something!!..
lol,can see lot of rubbish comment around…
I’ve been using Preve for the past 4 years and so far there is no issue occur,not even one problem…instead I’ve feel awesome and confident on the road…it’s equip with a lot safety features,the handling,the grip and the speed is what i like the most…have tried the top speed meter reach 210..let the user judge,not the criticism.
Proton fanboi always like to show top speed and smoke here and smoke there. They always think buying a car is about smoking people…LOL.
Good luck crashing at 210Km/h into a tree. See that Lancap 5 stars can save you or not.
:rolleyes:
lol,can see lot of rubbish comment around…
I’ve been using Preve for the past 4 years and so far there is no issue occur,not even one problem…instead I’ve feel awesome and confident on the road…it’s equip with a lot safety features,the handling,the grip and the speed is what i like the most…have tried the top speed meter reach 210..let the user judge,not the criticism..
PERHAPS THIS NEW JV SHOULD BE BUILDING LOTUS HYBRID OR 100% BATTERY ELECTRIC VEHICLE(BEV) AS THE TREND IS TO ADOPT 100% GREEN AND CLEAN ZERO EMISSION BEV WITH HUGE INCENTIVES FROM THE CHINA GOVERNMENT AS THE BATTERY ELECTRIC CARS ARE THE FUTURE PLATFORM FOR AUTOPILOT AND SELF DRIVING WITH TESLA’S OPEN SOURCE PATENTS AND ALSO GETTING OTHER SOURCES FOR ADVANCED SOFTWARE FOR RUNNING AUTOPILOT AND AUTONOMOUS DRIVING AS THE FUTURE OF ALL BEV AND ALSO WITH FUEL-LESS ELECTRIC POWER GENERATORS AND FROM SOLAR, WIND, HYDRO, WAVE, GEOTHERMAL AND OTHER CLEAN AND SAFE NUCLEAR SOURCES TO CLEAN AND GREEN THE WORLD AND THE LOTUS BEV CAR COULD BE SOLD WORLDWIDE AS ALL BEV SHOULD.
PERHAPS THIS NEW JV SHOULD BE BUILDING LOTUS HYBRID OR 100% BATTERY ELECTRIC VEHICLE(BEV) AS THE TREND IS TO ADOPT 100% GREEN AND CLEAN ZERO EMISSION BEV WITH HUGE INCENTIVES FROM THE CHINA GOVERNMENT AS THE BATTERY ELECTRIC CARS ARE THE FUTURE PLATFORM FOR AUTOPILOT AND SELF DRIVING WITH TESLA’S OPEN SOURCE PATENTS AND ALSO GETTING OTHER SOURCES FOR ADVANCED SOFTWARE FOR RUNNING AUTOPILOT AND AUTONOMOUS DRIVING AS THE FUTURE OF ALL BEV AND ALSO WITH FUEL-LESS ELECTRIC POWER GENERATORS AND FROM SOLAR, WIND, HYDRO, WAVE, GEOTHERMAL AND OTHER CLEAN AND SAFE NUCLEAR SOURCES TO CLEAN AND GREEN THE WORLD AND THE LOTUS BEV CAR COULD BE SOLD WORLDWIDE AS ALL BEV SHOULD.
LOTUS WAS THE ORIGINAL ASSEMBLER OF TESLA ROADSTER AND THEY COULD BUILD THEIR OWN 100% BATTERY ELECTRIC CARS OF THEIR OWN FOR SALE WORLDWIDE IF THE GRAPHENE ALUMINUM/GERMINIUM/ZINC ION/AIR BATTERY COULD IMPROVE THE RANGE OF BEV WITH THE LATEST DENSITY POWER BREAKTHROUGHS COMING SOON.
LOTUS WAS THE ORIGINAL ASSEMBLER OF TESLA ROADSTER AND THEY COULD BUILD THEIR OWN 100% BATTERY ELECTRIC CARS OF THEIR OWN FOR SALE WORLDWIDE IF THE GRAPHENE ALUMINUM/GERMANIUM/ZINC ION/AIR BATTERY COULD IMPROVE THE RANGE OF BEV WITH THE LATEST DENSITY POWER BREAKTHROUGHS COMING SOON.
well you guys just mock ur ancestor country..wht eve