The first Proton SUV is set to make its debut in final quarter of this year, and it will most likely be based on the facelifted 2018 Geely Boyue, instead of the pre-facelift Boyue that was previewed in Malaysia last year. We recently got up-close with the Boyue facelift at the Baoji plant where it’s made, and came away impressed by the SUV as a static object.
While the exterior design of Geely’s C-segment SUV is smart, it’s the interior of the Boyue that stood out more for this pundit. The design of the cockpit is neat, and more importantly for a Chinese car, not blatantly inspired by something else.
The cabin’s perceived quality is high, with soft plastics on the door caps and dash top, which all get stitching. The seats and the brown leather are also supple, while the prevalent brushed metal trim (beats piano black anyday IMHO) is rather convincing, more so than in a big Continental car I sampled not too long ago.
While neat, the Boyue’s interior is far from boring. It’s livened by flourishes such as the grab handles that sprout like ears on the centre console, and the unique door handles. There’s character too – the speaker grilles, lights/wiper stalks and door handle area all share an interlocking G pattern, which could potentially be a distinctive signature akin to the brand’s “expanding cosmos” grille.
The facelifted car comes with a new infotainment system, which ditches physical buttons in favour of touch-sensitive panels. The touchscreen, which now sits flush with the bezels, remains an eight-inch item, but the resolution has been bumped up to 1920×720 pixels. The user interface has also been redesigned, and the 360-degree camera now shows a 3D view of obstacles surrounding the car.
Along with the head unit, the fully digital instrument panel lends the Boyue’s cabin a touch of high tech. It’s immediately apparent that the inspiration here is Volvo, but that’s only natural when Geely owns Volvo and its current group design head – Peter Horbury – was famous for his transformation work at the Swedish brand.
The layout of the Boyue’s meter panel is similar to the current Volvo S60/V60 and V40 hatchback, with a large central dial flanked by concentric rings of readouts.
Press the push start button and the panel comes to live with an animation that draws out the Boyue’s silhouette (an element Volvo owners would be familiar with), followed by a (virtual) needle sweep. The sequence is repeated when the engine is turned off. In China, a high-pitched female voice accompanies each drive mode change – I found it to be annoying, but surely the announcement can be switched off.
The graphics change according to drive modes, which are Normal, Eco and Sport. In Normal and Eco, the main dial is a speedo and the rev counter is an ascending one on its right. In Sport, the dial becomes a tacho, with speed displayed digitally. A leafy ‘E’ and an ‘S’ with a chequered flag denotes each mode, which also has its own colour – white for Normal, blue for Eco, red for Sport.
Personally, I’m an old school guy who likes analogue dials, but I reckon most would prefer high tech digital screens today. What do you think of the Boyue’s instrument panel?
GALLERY: 2018 Geely Boyue facelift
GALLERY: Proton SUV preview
Looking to sell your car? Sell it with Carro.
Proton came in andn smash in their boring horizontal grill..ahaha
Euro look and feel unlike ciplak P2
sell like hotcakes under rm60K.
Go buy iPad instead
U dreaming or what??? Podaahh
No need talk much because now the most important is the price.
A lady caught in the nude attracts much attention… A woman walking naked everyday in the park becomes an eyesore after sometime.
Stop dreaming.
So sad that people still bashing Proton even though this car is totally re-badged from Geely. Geely is the top 3 car makers in China and if the car maker is perceived to be that bad, it would have already closed shop given the competition in China is so stiff. Their sales volume beat Toyota and Nissan in China, and sales speaks louder than words.
Please stop bashing Proton as this car is not developed by Proton but Geely.
Even Corolla is no.7 or 8 in china. Jepunis car can balik kampung and pls close shop
Stop with your jaguh kampung mentality. People bash Proton for their low quality parts and services not bcoz Geely is bad. Do people bash Wira bcoz Mitsubishi is bad? No!
As someone has said, sales of Geely in China will beat foreign car coz they are the local car there. If sell Geely in Japan, Toyota and Nissan will also beat it. No doubt. Only in Malaysia is local car like Proton got beaten by Honda and Toyota. The sales have shown that there must be something wrong with our national car. Think about it
Well you mentioned that Proton produced low quality parts and services, but those were obviously things in the past right. What Proton left now is just a brand name.
In which part of my sentence that I advocate the jaguh kampung mentality? I just hope that people start moving forward, instead of complaining what had Proton produced in the past. We should think of what Geely will contribute in the future. As far as I know, Geely at least has saved thousands of Proton employees from upstream to downstream currently.
The Proton SUV based on the XC60 platform wud be runaway success. Hebat P1 ku!
If given a chance between Boyue and Cayenne, i will choose Boyue
Ko kne baya ngn proton jd cyber trooper mmg laa boleh sembang… Tgu actual sales figure nnt…
Popularity does not mean necessarily good. If follow your logic, rubbish jepunis car is better than felali
So Proton is better than Ferrari? Hahaha…
First compare with Porsche, now compare with Ferrari. When will P1 supporters stop?
Bashers agree with this logic, let them syiok sendiri
Cayenne how much la dei
Ketum mana you minum ni ? Mana ada based on Volvo platform.
The platform developed by volvo and geely engineers. They not asking volvo to help them, they ordered it. Volvo ini aku yg punya.
For car enthusiasts, platform = chassis. Am not sure what layman meaning for platform.
Yes Volvo helped Geely a heck of a lot on the development of this SUV. Even the JLC-4G18 shares 50% common parts suppliers with Volvo.
Going back to chassis (platform), Boyue chassis wheelbase is 2670 mm. Development started circa year 2012.
XC60 (yr 2012) wheelbase 2769 mm (off by 99mm = 9.9cm)
RAV4 (yr 2012) wheelbase 2660 mm (off by 10mm = 1cm)
Other XC models longer (XC70 2815mm, XC90 2857mm, XC40 not developed yet at year 2012).
CRV wheelbase 2620mm
Going by these numbers, still think (quote) “based on the XC60 platform” ?
Going digital is the IN thing. If you’re not IN, U are out of the game as millennial will look at it as part of the accessories. Will this digital meter be the future of all P1 ??
They should. Since now they most probably would be using the same parts bin.
Please price Boyue cheaper for more Malaysian to afford. If Proton is unable to price it cheaper then the Government should not impose higher tax on other brands so that the Public can have more choices, afterall Proton is no longer a 100% local brand. There is nothing to protect anymore & Geely is more than strong enough to stand against other competitors in a level playing field.
tht u need to ask car mnufacturer lor… the price of their car (same spec) is quite similar in this region.
You are contradicting yourself, if P1 no longer local brand the price will be increased, not decreased
Putting in fancy accessories to the car is easy. Putting in a quality parts while sustaining it with profitability is not so easy. Look at Proton. They have VSC, vibranium and infinity stones in their models but the company was sold at huge discount.
Pipu buy P2 coz it is cheap not becoz it has good quality
Pipu buy P2 coz P1 make other cars expensive and it’s the only affordable option
Yet Honda doing record breaking sales despite the purported high car prices. Ini fake news tarak ngam with basher reality ni…
Yet Proton’s sales can’t beat Honda despite the higher JD Power rating. Ini fake news tarak ngam with john’s reality…
JD Power stats only measure servis. Manada sales involved? Ini fake news tarak ngam with basher’s reality…
Poor service pun ada lebih sales. Kesian P1. Hahaha…
If you say becoz of P1 other cars price increase, why not saying P2 too? And of course think about cheaper jepunis car like almera. If die die wants jepunis car why not go for it?
Made by geely. Will buy
Made by potong… eww buy biycyle even better
If made by P2 buy RC car even better
Geely owns half of Proton. They have more authority than say…..Suzuki with the Ertiga when quality control and assembly is concerned, or Mitsubishi even with their various models in the past.
They only own less than half of Proton. So don’t everything also blame Geely…
If this partnership fails, first thing Proton would blame is Geely for mismanagement, then they would blame the jepunis for competition. In the end, they would blame the rakyat for no sapot
Don’t know bodoh or what, but I never blame Geely for anything nor do I say anything about the partnership’s success…
All I’m saying is that since they own 49.9% of Proton and are offering their products to them, they surely have authority when it comes to production, QC and assembly especially since they are prepping up Tg.Malim as an assembly line for both RHD Geely vehicles sold in SEA as well as Geely cars sold under Proton’s badge.
There is a reason why they own 49% instead of 51% of Proton ;)
Yet the 51% willingly gave free-rein to the 49% to run it ;)
If made by pero2, no need buy anything because never enter the showroom
Gaudy
U mean highly successful Civic FC and new gen Mesidis?
Doesn’t look as high quality on camera but I reckon it will be better in real life. Hopefully they can up the resolution, or put in a screen with deeper blacks.
Important queations….GOT BLOODY TEMP GAUGE OR NOT?????
Watch the video la.
data sudah habis la..
A big yes!
GOT BLOODY TEMP GAUGE OR NOT?????
This question, you should indeed ask Poodua
Danny, I saw the Boyue test unit up close, there’s 2 variants. The lower spec has analogue meter panel, it could mean this digital panel is reserved for top spec, so base spec still gets an analogue panel.
It be nice if they can standardise to use digi meter for all specs like civic FC. Maybe can disable some features like TPMS or navigation.
Not origin, shame to buy
At the end of the day no matter how high the tech it’s still a low rent proton with the infamous low built quality with low resale values.
Dah lah, stop spreading lies out of spite without much in the way of facts. We know you’re compensating for the reality that your Indonesian made Honda feels lower rent than a college student hostel.
No thanks. Will stick with Japanese.
Ur money, ur choice and ur loss.
Soulless cars for boring Ah Bengs. Cannot afford Germans but dont want P1.German or British if you are really classy or can afford it. I dont mind getting this Boyue as a second car. Complements my Porsche 911 and BMW 330e well.
The font used on numerals is reminiscent of the old 144/244/240
I’m starting to believe that paultan is Proton’s Crony.
We were accused of being biased towards Perodua during the Myvi’s launch last year, so which one is it?
They’re both local brands, so we put in more focus on them, as we always do.
Not really. Most of the comments were ToyotaP2 SA & fanbois crowing about their jaguh kampung. Any reasonable comments, even from esteemed members, were furiously downvoted by THAT troll.
PT tirelessly providing fast, impartial and complete coverage of the Malaysian and world automotive industry. And it’s free for the masses. Keep it up Paultan & Co, and let’s keep em’ coming yo!
I am starting to believe you are Proton’s competitors’ crony. You see, it can cut both ways.
Geely do the work, we put the emblem
same as daihatsu do all the work, perodua rebadges.. but doesnt stop more than half the country buying their products.. so whats your point exactly?
Do it right from the very beginning.
Good customer service under Geely-Proton. Good products (including future ones) must have good customer service.
A good dedicated responsible man from China is needed to supervise customer service nationwide, and he must be readily accessible to the public/customers who can make complaints directly to him.
will it gets soft touch plastic still when arrive here?
or will it depend on the oem part supplier able to adapt?
UTun crony cant supply? Not gonna be a problem anymore.
Where is my 100k 300hp lotus neo R?? Yawn not another SUV…
If you leave it to the Proton designers there will be a million pointy tipped triangles…as in the lris. Hate those triangles.
Its getting exciting by the day. This is clever marketing. Looking forward to more features, gadgets etc.
If it’s merely a pure ‘re-badge’ then it’ll probably be worth the money (considering they keep the price competitive). Should be similar to the first generation Inspiras, which are basically Lancers. Those driver scored mad deals. I
However, the moment Proton starts to tinkering with it, I’m pretty sure it’ll become rubbish again. Mainly due to their typical ‘cheapening, cut corners to make more profit and crap quality control’ attitude… Before long the car interior will be rattling like bag full of rattlesnakes!
I think, must wait, because Tun say it’s no more national car, maybe tax will be less,