When asked about his numerous shortcomings, Thomas Edison was quoted as saying, “I have not failed 700 times. I’ve succeeded in proving 700 ways not to build a lightbulb.” While many have resorted to debate the exact number in his quote, it is best we look through the key message of perseverance enshrined in the inventor’s words.
The largest part of my work is the implementation of government framework and policy specific to developing the Malaysian automotive industry. In this context, implementation is based on clear strategies that are coherent with the macro-economic direction of our government.
One thing I’ve learned in my line of work – one I consider a great honour and challenge – is the elimination of preconceived bias and assumptions to any issue. As a nation that is itself on a learning curve, we too must look at issues from both sides of the divide before forming an opinion.
With that said, let me delve into the debate on the new national car project. However, to fairly look at this massive complex issue, there are certain prevalent assumptions that should be clarified.
Firstly, it is important to establish the facts about the state of the current automotive industry. To date, there are more than 25 OEMs and around 700 vendors that are part of the ecosystem of the domestic industry.
The keyword here is “ecosystem.” While OEMs and vendors are the parties most likely to be discussed within the public sphere, the ecosystem is wider and deeper than we can imagine.
Just to name a few, the automotive sector has developed tool and die makers, raw material producers, machine builders, part distributors, accessories, workshops, recyclers and remanufacturers. This employs a workforce of more than 700,000 Malaysians as designers, engineers, technicians, production operators, servicemen, and many non-technical positions – all equipped with skills and talent in a sector of high technology.
While an OEM is part of the ecosystem, the discussion about industrialisation should not only revolve around OEMs alone. It should be viewed holistically, to also include the entire value chain that makes up the industry.
Secondly, while there are valid points on both sides of national car issue, they are often convoluted by the assumption that it is a repeat of previous attempts, including its historical parameters and strategies.
This has led to unnecessary speculation on future car prices, market fluctuation, trade policies, accusations of anti-liberalisation, and so on so forth, while the entire decision has thus far merely been subject to its impact studies and consultation to move forward in the economic direction set by the government of the day – on a macro level.
To fairly look at the national car issue, we must take a holistic view at the economic goals of the nation. Despite having a comparative advantage in agricultural and commodity-based industries, we decided that being a consumer nation was not enough for us, and we needed to industrialise in order to become an advanced nation.
Industrialisation in this context is not merely about having factories. It is about being free and independent, at the very least sufficiently co-dependent, on ourselves in key technology areas. Any advanced nation in the world would demonstrate such as trait.
In Malaysia’s case, the automotive industry was chosen to spur that independence. Full-fledged automotive design capabilities – from the drawing board to the final production – was to be created in order to develop an advanced economy, spinning off to other industries.
For example, if we can engineer automotive plastic components, then the same engineering knowledge and skill will trickle down to other plastic based industries. Without an automotive industry, we would still be able to manufacture plastic products, but would be limited to producing low yield, low barrier items.
As we all know, low barrier markets are highly volatile markets which bear high risk for all those within them. The fall of Malaysia’s dominance in the world tin market, circa 1985, is a good lesson to us all.
This is where the idea of a new national car comes into the picture. Just like how Proton spurred our first industrial phase, it can spur the next phase of industrialisation for Malaysia.
The world automotive market, interestingly, is now going through a transition. As technology develops away from fossil fuel dependence towards electrification and autonomous driving, it is slowly becoming a blue ocean for new market players. Who knew that Apple and Google would even consider entering the automotive market as a manufacturer, but recent news is rife with speculation that this is in the pipeline.
To keep up, Malaysia must consider all options to spur the next stage of our industry. I have written numerous pieces in my column (for the MAI website), in which, while the final equation for our automotive goals is a work in progress, the elements of success are becoming more and more defined.
The new national car would firstly hinge on the experience built from our current automotive ecosystem, adapting to the backdrop of global trends in the global automotive markets. The blue ocean mentioned above opens the gate for the transformation towards next-generation vehicles and connected mobility, in line with future trends.
In keeping with global trade norms, options may include supporting the expansion of existing national brands, leveraging on partnerships between local and foreign OEMs that currently exist, or even direct international collaboration between Malaysian OEMs and major automotive market players around the world.
This must include the optimisation of current and future investments of domestic and foreign direct investments (DDI & FDI), to strike the balance of mutual interests between investors and meaningful participation of Malaysians within the automotive industry.
While technology has evolved, so has Malaysia’s position as a regional automotive hub, in particular with regards to energy efficiency. Despite its smaller industry volume, it has attracted billions in investment to allow Malaysians to participate in higher value activities within the automotive value chain – making us a nation of choice for regional collaboration in automotive development.
For example, the recent announcement of the revival of the ASEAN car project was followed by an agreement between MAI and Institut Otomotif Indonesia (IOI) to enhance collaboration between automotive vendors of both neighbouring countries, gearing towards developing the ASEAN car.
With the advantage of hindsight, experience and new opportunities, a national car project is a strong option to spur the next phase of automotive development. Let a healthy debate take place – we should allow time and space for ideas to manifest themselves by putting aside our preconceived bias.
Madani Sahari is CEO of the Malaysia Automotive Insitute (MAI).
*The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer and do not represent or reflect the views of paultan.org.
Dato Madani virtually engineered the rise & rise of Honda & P2. And aptly put “We should allow time and space for ideas to manifest themselves by putting aside our preconceived bias.” To a better new Malaysia, Ohhsemm MAI !!
When people are talking about BIG Data, IoT, Cloud Technology, Blockchain, you are still stick to the idea of manufacturing industry???
We are way backwards in terms of technology and knowhow in terms of making car. It would take decades before we can really talk proudly that we can make a car that can compete worldwide. In the process of doing this, tons of money will have to be invested and at the end, we still way behind compared with other car manufacturing countries. Because they are also progressing at the same time. And at last, the people of Malaysia has to be sacrisfied in order to protect the industry from bursting. And we will enter another Proton circle of Karma.
Why not focus on what we can do best!
Focus on our key advantages and strengths. We hv diverse ethnic and culture, our food are famous amongst the world. We can focus on tourist industry and food industry.
We hv ample land, we have agriculture products such as oil palm and durian. If you really wanted to go for industrialization, focus on these product and lets look at how we can increase the productivity and technology in agriculture.
Look for new uses of our oil palm such as bio fuel products.
look at the solar technology as our country is blessed with ample sunlight.
Focus on what we have, improve it, applying advanced technology and we can make our country unique.
In conclusion, there are so many things we can do to make Malaysia the advanced country. And please stay away from making cars.
Stop the 3rd National Car project!
malaysia overall is quite a backwards country. export rubber, import rm2k tyres and rm10k latex mattresses. export palm oil , import nutella. no wonder we will forever be a developing country.
He quoted Thomas Edison but actually he forgot to remind himself about Einstein quote:
“Insanity, doing same things again and again only to expect different result”
Edison came before me, and if Edison did not persevere as he did, I would not have been who I am in history. The efforts of those of us who came after are built ontop of the achievements of those before. Much like Edison’s achievement are built on his predecessors like Isaac Newton who gave: “If I have seen further it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.”
Edison is just another US junk!!!
Nikolas Tesla are the best!
Edison did perfected the working light bulb otherwise we still be using candles.
no need any new national car!
just remove unfair tax barrier for all sedan below 1600cc!
after 37years(P1 born 1981) of suffering, let rakyat chance to own world class cars!
Yes! let the b40 group rakyat own world class cars truly made in Malaysia
Anyone who are financially strong can afford to own imported world class car with duty tax paid!
Otherwise go seek right platform with hardworking to become financially strong first!
Old kantonis saying “Never wears a large hat if you do not a big head” LOL
But but but many comments here show they dun have big heads. Oni biar papa asal bergaya.
But new kantonis say – U must have Big vision in-order to have Big future hence U need a Bigger hat to accommodate it Right!!
Corrections.
P1 was established on 7th May 1983. Not 1981 as mentioned.
But basher claims P1 was born in 1957
I have read Datuk Madani Sahari’s writings for quite some time, I can tell he’s very passionate about the auto industry. I believe MAI works harder for the benefits of our auto industry, unlike the MAA, who only care about themselves.
MAA does not represent the interests of our auto industry, they NEVER did. They are run by the same people who run the car companies, mainly the import ones like UMW, Tan Chong, Jaguar, Honda, Mitsubishi, Kia etc.. They have vested, conflicting interests in their own individual businesses. Meanwhile, MAI is a (now Pakatan led) government body under MITI.
There is a strong reason why neither Proton nor Perodua have representatives in the MAA’s council. Dr. M himself does not get along with MAA’s president (Aishah Ahmad).
MAA is pro-import. They have always been. Recently, MAA’s president criticised the third national car project and import restrictions as a ‘regressive move’. Naturally, many Malaysians agreed, and I somewhat agree too. But I know that MAA’s motives are not what most Malaysians believe. I can tell you, they have their own hidden agendas.
Don’t be fooled, MAA is not pro-rakyat like they used to be many decades ago. They are just fighting for their own interests these days. It just so happens that most of their interests align with the rakyat’s desire for lower prices on import cars.
Most important is what the people want. Ask anyone on the street if they want a Honda or a Proton. In the meanwhile, Perodua is just filing the gap between high demand established brands and low sales volume of Proton.
They definitely don’t want a Toyota.Lols
Eh, why compare Honda with Proton? Honda is no no because TOC is defenately higher
what about agendas? obviously MAI has a clear agenda and is not unbiased. Can we please get a reality check firmly in our collective head – Malaysia is not and never will be a car manufacturing hub. Cars are obsolete. The ICE is dead as of 2016. Ride-sharing, on demand services and electric vehicles are here now. MAA, MAI, Madey are all irrelevant. Stop wasting our hard-earned money.
I know I’ve been mentioning Mahathir in a negative light as of late. But really, if we draw a comparison between Thai and Malaysia, just have a relook at both countries’ policies.
In the 80s, we wanted to be an industrialized nation, so we abandoned agriculture. All the money were pumped to spruce up our industrial infrastructure. All the policies were made to bias towards protecting a certain brand.
Look at where we are right now, we are still playing catch-up with Thai where automotive industry is concerned.
We are also nowhere near Thai as far as agriculture goes. We still import our veges, fruits, cattles, all from Thailand. Bear in mind that geographically we are similar, so whatever they can farm, we can too.
We are now screwed on 2 fronts!!
So, whither Malaysia? We just made the man who started screwing us up in the first place, as a PM again.
Footnote: that guy, Madani? He should put his money where his mouth is. Start with a backyard kitcar or something. Then work his way up like that Toyoda guy who made Toyota or Honda (who made Honda) or Henry Ford. That multi-paragraphs of an article theorizing that this 3rd national car project could work this time around means nothing but his own wet dream.
Malaysia the better https://paultan.org/2015/12/08/malaysia-eev-incentives-better-than-thailands-fs/
Ya ya ya, all about others but not for the king which is the customers.
We the customer would like to know whether price of car will drop to a reasonable level ie 2-3 years loan only.
Look like we need to fight this ourselves.
When the buying stop,
The killing can too…
Lets boycott them.
Thomas Edison was trying to invent something which did not exist at that time
… skipped the rest of the article after the first paragraph
Just at idiot trying to justify why his head shouldn’t be chopped.
Hoi Madani, whatever crap you said all doesn’t correspond with reality. Automakers continue to invest hybrid and battery production in Thailand, whatever you’re trying to do all just rubbish meant to confuse politicians who are not experts in automotive matter. Carmakers have had it with your bs!
Better you just resign, and let Proton/Geely show how it’s done. All the govt needs to do is just listen and obey. I hope that is not difficult to do at all.
Barely a few months after Dr Li Chunrong comes in, immediately he can see the problem of vendors overcharging by 30%. Something simple like that also you don’t know, no wonder nobody wants to come here. But not Geely, Geely is willing to invest, and all they need is your obedience.
So cut your bs, and let Geely run the show. They certainly know way more than your nonsense that resulted in nothing but misery for the automotive industry with TIV sales consistently dropping since GST started, you should have the dignity to resign, instead you come to paultan grasping at the straws trying to be relevant. Begone!
Glory to Geely empire!
P1, Geely, Mesidis, VolvoCar, VolvoTrucks, Lotus > all
To develop Msian auto industri and support P1, P2 and P3. Madani can learn from afew country;
Jepun support mazda, honda, toyota,nissan.
Jerman support merc, bmw, audi, vw,opel.
Korea support kia, hyundai,ssangyong.
French support Renault, Citroen, Peugeot,Dacia
Any notion of a national car project should never come with any barriers to competition. Dr.M said we should emulate the Japanese, so do it their way by forcing competition from foreign brands against local to build a strong company out of adversity.
Protectionism is for the weak the stupid and the retarded, ahem Trump….
Even jepunis got plotektion in nippon.
But the cost of heavily investing into a market so small and yet have so many competitor. Yes they can build up a lot of other industries but in the same time it will also become a burden when the new national car are to depend on this sources as suppliers, for both side. When one fall all will die together, and to keep them a float will then again become the burden of the rakyatm
.
Still I will suggest invest in something else, smartphone, robotics, AI, why must it always be automotive?
As a whole, Malaysia auto industry is not helping Malaysia…..
Just look at the numbers of foreigners working in our auto factory.
If it’s truly Malaysian, all workforce must be Malaysian.
We don’t need another national car to have more foreigners working for so called Malaysian company.
As it is, there’s not enough Malaysian workforce for the current economic climate. Just talk to any business owners, not enough workers to expand.
If need to, support any private individuals/company who are really passionate about car, invest in them, let them operate independently, and let’s see how it goes….
If good results, government can give some grant/loan when really necessary.
When it comes to the Auto Industry, it boils down to two mindsets: People who see it as an industry that can push Malaysia beyond just manufacturing into actual high value activities such as design and engineering. Just as it initially pushed us from agri based industry to manufacturing. Or just as what cars on the market that can be bought, shown off & driven.
You can guess where the majority of PT readers fall into. Or even the Majority of Malaysians.
Well said…. I wish give some of my honest opinion about MAI and the 3rd national car project.
1st. I think the email on the MAI website is not working. Also, all the emails given on perodua website is dead too
2nd. While u can be so free, why not try to improve perodua ? (Stop rebadging… it is worst than stealing)
3rd. Please remove the quota system in the national car company…. it can f*** the company….
God bless Malaysia.
Then do not ask for protection… show it to the world that you can make it… Walk without tongkat… and stop talking non-sense.
If you want to pursuit your passion successfully with taxes on others… pls stop it, we rakyat do not need it… no matter how many times you said. enough is enough..
I’ll just be blunt. Ridiculous. Stop depriving man on the street from driving better cars. Key word is better and at the price they should be. I believe majority of the people has already shared their views on this. Its only fair.
Whatever that is planned for P3 why cant it be continued by P1 & P2? Cant we learn engineering by working at the CKD plants for Beemers and from Geely which owns Volvo? Do we really need to keep on reinventing the wheel? The current ecosystem available, give incentives to bring them up to par so the likes of Geely / Mercedez / Honda and they can source their skills, capacity and capability. We can achieve the same goal without risking much failure, faster and better received by the people.
Remember Paris Agreement 2015. Co2 emissions reductions by 2030. What are we doing to meet that? MRT3? Refocus back to perfecting our public transportation, covered walkways, better connecting transportation modes. Why stop?
P3 will definitely attract protectionism whether its private or public funded. We can work on eev cars through P1&P2, put some incentives that hell give more incentives to other players.
We should really be working on the next wawasan and have a roadmap towards achieving it. Reconsided how Malaysia can lead at the forefront socially, good governance (were on the right track now), environmentally and economically as well.
We have suffered enough. Move on.
I dont care if this Datuk is passionate or not, while he’s sipping starbucks in a brand new Mercedes / BMW or any premium continental for that matter listening to some cool music, while we the rakyat are stuck in traffic in a lousy local car.
Not forgetting our brothers and sisters who can’t afford newer car, suffering in old unsafe cars with their loved ones, all because this so called passionate car enthusiast wants to propel the so called automotive eco system.
We can move on to ten car projects on the day no child of this country is sitting in the bakul of an ex5 and not wearing a helmet just to get to school. Until then make car affordable. Dont feed your bloody ego Madani !
well said bro!
No need for another Proton replacement. As long as the “tidak apa” and “rilek la” culture still persist in the workforce, there is no future for any national car project. All Proton owners learnt that the hard way, being patriotic and support the local industry will be rewarded with shit attitude from after sales service. That is why most people who bought Proton before never gonna buy another Proton.
Before you start to run, you should learn to walk first. Make car parts with equivalent quality to Japanese and European cars. Start making world class tyre first before you make a car. Malaysia has plenty of rubber , so start small before going way above your head and end up like current Proton.
I was skeptical when i heard the new national car project. But when i heard EV car and Hybrids, im optimistic. Some people would argue on “better focus on public transport maa”. But pushing hybrid and ev car into the red ocean market is brilliant. Less competition with lot of potential.
Really good article. I support another National car project definitely. We should not give up. We should not let our country to become only consumer country, later the country will become poor. We must produce.
I never see Proton as a fail project. It never fail. It just need to be evolve. Too bad that Proton has been sold.
Hopefully the next car project will be more dynamic and competitive.
Why don’t we have a national electric bike project to start with, it’s untaped market with huge potential , and green energy, both rural and urban will benefit great in this..
China is huge on electric bikes. They alredi so far advanced.
If 3rd national car is from private sector. then don’t call it national car and public sector should stay away from it. Dr M should let market decide what is needed. Don’t waste government time, energy and resource on this. Government should spend more time to other critical stuff period!!
The problem is not with the national car project, but the way the gov need to support them by creating an unfair market to their competitors.
And because of the “ecosystem”, once the project fail, the vendors will fail as well (if they dont adapt fast enough) and will most likely result of a bailout from the gov.
On Macro side , it sounds good to have Big car mfg. But on Micro side, the actual fact P1 was inundated by cronies, making useless power window, and P1 was forced to mfg crappy cars. The idea is always good in M’sia, but implementation always screws things up. Make it private investment, government pls hands off. Then this problem will not occur.
Currently only Proton got lousy designers and engineers.
Let’s really learn from Edison and skip the 700 ways to not do it, and skip direct to P701.
“One thing I’ve learned in my line of work – one I consider a great honour and challenge – is the elimination of preconceived bias and assumptions to any issue.”
elimination of preconceived bias?
Think again Madani. Just admit you and your MAI is shaken by PH now.
This is actually less about cars but more about creating an industry. While DatoMadani may be right in his passion for the car industry… he and TunM is totally wrong in diving into a manufacturing industry from scratch in their approach. Comparing and taking heed on how old stalwarts of the auto industry do business is simply taking things too simplistically. The industrial revolution has evolved to 4.0 where automation is the name of the game, autonomous robotics, data transference, digital-physical divide, blockchain technology, Iot, IIoT, etc. MAI should look into reducing workforce and push productivity up thru automation and robotics… lesser workers but higher paying tech supervisors manning the technology. Invest more in R&D universities creating better and efficient batteries, robotics systems and propulsion units and sell them off or create JVs with other manufacturers… thats where to go now.
Dont talk like you have the capability to go global challenging the big party.
Perotiga will only doing business with the rakyat.
Your dream is our nightmare.
It is also widely believed that Edison would not have succeeded if he had not stolen other people’s ideas. Proton and Perodua are just rebadging centers. Nothing national about them at all. If third national car takes the same route, nothing to glory about.
1. if we are still making the old engines, there would be no market in the future as Europe will banned all engines.(profits by exchange rates).
2. if we make EEV, we will require lots of talents, and mostly all of them are overseas, thanks to the Education blueprint.
3. can the 3rd national car sustain a recall like VW? and still be making profits? will there be a stress test ?
How can a nation with rojak, cendol, abc and chee cheong fun mindset succeed in the automotive industry? This industry need precision, taste, class and attention to minute detail. Our ‘apa nama’ and ‘tidak apa’ attitude will never succeed in this industry.