Proton’s ASEAN car to be rolled out within 20 months?

Proton_Iriz_1.3_Standard_ 005

Earlier in the month, it was reported that Proton was studying the possibility of a partnership with one or more China-based car manufacturers in an effort to develop an ASEAN car. It looks like things are moving ahead on that front, with a timeline for product deployment now being mentioned.

According to Bernama, second International Trade and Industry minister Datuk Seri Ong Ka Chuan said Proton was currently in negotiations with a few automobile companies in China, including Geely, and a new ASEAN car could come about in under two years.

“Things are moving positively. They say they need 20 months from now to build a plant and roll out the first car,” he told reporters at an event yesterday.

asean car

Ong said that there was a lot of potential in tapping into the regional automotive sector, given the large population, expanding middle class and strong purchasing power. “We must act fast to capture the market. If we can produce cars to cater to this market, it will be highly beneficial given the various regional free trade agreements,” he explained.

He added that partnerships with Chinese carmakers will enable Malaysia to leverage on China’s strong R&D, thus improving Proton cars and enable the national automaker to come up with a competitive model for the ASEAN market.

This directional change would shift the focus away from that reported earlier in the year, when Proton was understood to have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with an Indonesian partner to intensify efforts to build an ASEAN car. Last year, the automaker had expressed its interest and willingness to collaborate with regional manufacturers to produce an ASEAN car.

AD: Drive the Proton model of your dreams. Submit your details and Proton PJ will get in touch with you.

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

  • kakikereta on Oct 02, 2015 at 8:11 am

    Seems like proton is a little late to the party, there are already countless manufacturers who are manufacturing in ASEAN for the ASEAN market. They also have ASEAN cars produced only for the ASEAN market.

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 14 Thumb down 1
    • 2ltr bottle on Oct 02, 2015 at 8:28 am

      Better late then never

      Like or Dislike: Thumb up 20 Thumb down 10
      • fast5 on Oct 02, 2015 at 9:52 am

        BN and the ministers will not accept it because is non halal…

        Like or Dislike: Thumb up 20 Thumb down 10
        • Curi Curi Malaysia on Oct 02, 2015 at 10:12 am

          Proton can’t even succeed with their own cars, such a big faiure, now they want to do ASEAN car?

          Charity begins at home. Try to succeed locally first. Then venture overseas.

          Like small kid. Still cannot kencing straight and wet the toilet seat, now want to grow like big boy and have sex.

          Also, Proton’s overseas ventures all failed big time. Proton sales are near ZERO in each country. Yet they maintain big showroom and pay expat fees to some monkey from Malaysia to stay overseas. Like in UK, Proton is a big failure, but Proton spends millions of ringgit to pay the Malaysian staff pay and housing in the UK. But sales only 1 or 2 cars.

          Pls Proton, you know you are a failure. Stop wasting your money which is our LHDN mney. Every year Proton sucks hundreds of millions of our LHDN money in the form of kononnya research grants.

          Like or Dislike: Thumb up 7 Thumb down 1
        • camtakpro on Oct 02, 2015 at 10:38 am

          Those BN ministers surface act halal only. The things they did everyday non-halal.

          Like or Dislike: Thumb up 3 Thumb down 1
        • ?

          Like or Dislike: Thumb up 0 Thumb down 2
        • kampung boy on Oct 02, 2015 at 12:32 pm

          Satu lagi project tongkat alim

          Like or Dislike: Thumb up 5 Thumb down 1
      • first global car…..cannot jalan now change asean car……from big market to small market

        Like or Dislike: Thumb up 5 Thumb down 1
  • Emseka on Oct 02, 2015 at 8:38 am

    Toyota = ASEAN Car.

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 7 Thumb down 21
    • Tan chong motor on Oct 02, 2015 at 9:02 am

      No identity.

      Like or Dislike: Thumb up 5 Thumb down 5
      • camtakpro on Oct 02, 2015 at 10:44 am

        Correct. ASEAN car shouldn’t have identity amongst ASEANs.

        But then again,
        Toyota identity is reliability.
        Nissan identity is road hogging.
        Honda identity is ricers.
        Mazda identity is red color.
        China car identity is poor quality.
        Proton identity is poor quality high fuel consumption.

        Hey, korean car can be ASEAN car. Full of buttons, gadgets, soulless, neither here nor there, colorful, showing off, bling blingness, noisy, slow, no driver feedback. Just like ASEAN.

        Like or Dislike: Thumb up 6 Thumb down 2
    • Absolute Rider on Oct 02, 2015 at 9:45 am

      You think all the Japanese car models sell in ASEAN equivalent with those in European countries. The raw materials such as steel has the different.

      Like or Dislike: Thumb up 5 Thumb down 3
      • Subframe on Oct 02, 2015 at 2:12 pm

        European model have a lot of high tensile steel 590MPa up to 1500MPa for main structure. Masuk ASEAN most of the parts change to mild steel, 270MPa.

        Like or Dislike: Thumb up 2 Thumb down 0
  • Littlebear on Oct 02, 2015 at 8:58 am

    Who would wanna buy this crap if people just top up a bit more for a Japanese make..

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 15 Thumb down 5
  • Others Asean country can start enjoy impose excise tax on Potong as retaliation for Asean car

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 8 Thumb down 1
  • mustafa on Oct 02, 2015 at 9:10 am

    I thought proton wants to go global

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 15 Thumb down 0
    • Low Budget on Oct 02, 2015 at 1:54 pm

      May be they don’t mean going global but trying to catch up with global standard.

      Like or Dislike: Thumb up 1 Thumb down 1
  • altimate.sss on Oct 02, 2015 at 9:58 am

    “China’s strong R&D” – are you freaking kidding me
    But anyhow, I wish Proton success.. we can do it if we want to.

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 3 Thumb down 16
    • Sharon on Oct 02, 2015 at 10:14 am

      Yes. China is strong R&D. They even can launch rocket / satellite. Look at their automotive advancement, the grow of mobile companies and technologies, and so many other industries.

      Like or Dislike: Thumb up 3 Thumb down 2
      • Low Budget on Oct 02, 2015 at 1:52 pm

        Lets not forget they also have the capabilities to send men to the moon with their own rocket, in the future Malaysians also are able to take China Space Taxi and eat roti canai in the space craft and then claim they are Astronauts.

        Like or Dislike: Thumb up 3 Thumb down 0
    • Malaysian too stupid, dunno R&D. Malaysian only know Revenge & Destroy

      Like or Dislike: Thumb up 2 Thumb down 4
    • tokmoh. on Oct 02, 2015 at 10:53 am

      Qoros, Volvo. The runner-ups of world’s safest cars.

      Proton is safer though, and I don’t persoal their claim.

      Like or Dislike: Thumb up 3 Thumb down 0
    • Low Budget on Oct 02, 2015 at 1:47 pm

      You are kidding yourself! Go do more research man!
      Check how many products (not just cars) and technologies are patented and copy righted.

      Like or Dislike: Thumb up 1 Thumb down 0
  • If they depend on China’s strong R&D, imagine how bad Proton is?

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 3 Thumb down 2
  • Talk only la. What happened to the Islamic car with Iran announced in 2007? 8 years already still nothing. 20 months?

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 5 Thumb down 1
  • MentalKar on Oct 03, 2015 at 12:21 am

    Masih ada yg komen mcm tahu buat kreta, sabar jgn suka cari salah, komen biarlah yg membantu membina industri kreta tanahair

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 0 Thumb down 4
  • MentalKar on Oct 03, 2015 at 7:00 am

    Proton patutnya sudah ada gabungan designer lama dan muda supaya boleh bekerjasama baik secara lokal atau luar Negara.Bagi membolehkan design yang segar dan sedap dipandang. Pasal prestasi dan kuasa kreta kemudian saja, tapi utk safety adalah MESTI.

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 0 Thumb down 2
  • jobless on Oct 03, 2015 at 8:56 am

    after spending billions and biilions in R&D, tis P1 is truly global car champion in making announcements, joint ventures, MOU, sales carnivals….apparently they spent all the “donations” on the above activities

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 2 Thumb down 0
  • Their logic is loser + loser = something great coming out.

    Like or Dislike: Thumb up 0 Thumb down 0
 

Add a comment

required

required