The new national car project (NNCP) pushed by prime minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad could source parts from ASEAN neighbours, as the region forges stronger ties to weather out the US-China trade war. The NNCP has attracted interest from neighbouring countries, minister of international trade and industry Darell Leiking told Bloomberg.
“What Mahathir meant was that he needed something where Malaysians can get together, ASEAN can get together, to supply components of this vehicle and make it into a national car in ASEAN, not only in Malaysia. It’s ambitious but I think that it’s necessary now, more so when you want to create an economic bloc like ASEAN,” he said.
The 10-country group of Southeast Asian nations has benefited from the US-China trade fallout as companies shift orders and move production bases to the region. It was the top destination among the one-third of more than 430 American companies in China that considered moving operations elsewhere, according to a survey by AmCham China and AmCham Shanghai, Bloomberg points out.
Leikeng also said that the government is gathering views from the industry on developing the new car brand, and will let the project be driven and funded by the private sector. The government’s role will be to assist in licensing and facilitation.
The NNCP will not be a rival to existing national car companies Proton and market leader Perodua, which at present are focused mainly on the domestic market. “Proton has already achieved what they’ve wanted and they’re there. So this is not competing with Proton, this is not competing even with Perodua, this is not competing with anyone. This is a separate thing altogether,” the minister said in the interview.
So, let’s piece together the info that we have so far from official government sources. Today, we hear that the NNCP will try to get ASEAN participation and “ownership” (not by equity, Malaysia surely won’t allow that) in the project, which will not compete with Proton and Perodua. Begs the question – who and/or what will the NNCP compete with then?
Yesterday, MAI CEO Datuk Madani Sahari said that two NNCP proposals have been received by MITI, which will continue to accept proposals until October 15. When asked about how realistic the NNCP timelines are, he said that the dates – model name to be revealed by end of 2018, prototype out early next year, roll out in 2020 – are just MIGHT’s estimates.
The timeline was announced last week by entrepreneur development minister Mohd Redzuan Yusof at a briefing by MIGHT. Who is MIGHT? The Malaysian Industry-Government Group for High Technology, which is under the purview of the PM’s department, has been appointed to communicate the various facets of the project. It will also coordinate the NNCP with various government ministries, agencies and the industry. We presume that this includes MITI, which MAI falls under.
Besides the ambitious-sounding timeline, MIGHT’s briefing also revealed that the new national car is expected to feature semi-autonomous capabilities and advanced safety features, while remaining affordable.
A couple of names were dropped. “We are now shortlisting two to three partners to participate in this project, including SilTerra and CTRM, and expect things to be concluded by year-end,” Mohd Redzuan said.
SilTerra is a Malaysian semiconductor manufacturer based in Kulim, while Composites Technology Research Malaysia (CTRM) manufactures composites components primarily for aeronautical structures, although it is now moving into other fields such as manufacturing composite components for light rail transit and automotive applications.
Are you getting a clear picture? Let’s hope that the various government arms involved in the NNCP are on the same page, and more clarity can be had soon.
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Don’t talk chicken la. The last time with Proton, gov lost billions in protecting, rakyat lost billions in duties for nothing.
The 3rd national car project is just bad news for the rakyat. Full stop. This will be another Proton.
Another car means just like Proton, rakyat will suffer another 30 yrs because this company also have to be protected like Proton.
In 1985, brand new Toyota Corolla in Malaysia RM20k
Fresh graduate gaji was RM1200
In 2018, brand new Toyota Corolla Altis is RM139k
Fresh graduate gaji is RM2500
Because of corruption and protectionism towards Proton, our Ringgit became so weak and our pay packet did not grow with inflation.
In 1985, many Malaysians could afford to buy a Toyota Corolla. In 2018, how many Malaysians can afford a Toyota Corolla?
We have to thank Proton for all this. Now we going to thank 3rd car project when non national cars shoot up again.
Already Proton failed big time and we have to tanggung malu and sell Proton to China for a cheap RM170 million
Isn’t that shame enough?
Government spent over RM20 billion to keep Proton alive and we sold the company for a mere RM170 million, losing Lotus and losing Proton’s land worth RM5 billion in Shah Alam.
I think Malaysians have suffered enough of losses. We suffered too much with expensive car prices because of Proton. Enough of our suffering
Pls use our money for better purposes like building more schools and hospitals.
Our Government has no clue or direction with the 3rd national car project.
Biggest joke when they announced that the car would be semi autonomous.
The evolution process of a car manufacturer is after petrol NA is to go to turbo, then into electrification starting with hybrid then slowly into PHEV then into fully EV. Then you do autonomous.
Our 3rd car project, just want to lompat straight into autonomous immediately. Malaysia has no expertise in this area. Even Tesla, with their Harvard and Stanford engineers also still cannot get autonomous right with so many accidents. Don’t forget, Tesla also got billions USD to research on this and yet, they still cannot do it.
Be real la
youre the one who needs to get real. Autunomous ability has nothing to do with powertrain tech/type. it could be NA/ Forced induction, petrol,diesel or hydrogen for that matter, hybrid or pure EV, any power train can be automated. we already have semi automated passenger jets newer ones) that can land by them selves (autoland) since way back in 65.
what do you mean by “The evolution process of a car manufacturer…”, youre not in the industry, your just an armchair expert. real engineers dont need to listen to you, your nothing to them.
Those of us just read his comments for the lulz. After a short time, it’s just the same copy paste boring fairytale.
All credits to MAI CEO Datuk Madani. leading Msia into autonomous motoring..
Semi-autonomous not bout self driving car. It is bout feature in a car eg AEB, adaptive cruise control, Lane departure warning etc.
Be real la. You came here whacking the previous Government on a daily basis in EVERY article posting and influenced us to vote for Atuk. So now that he is back, naturally he resurrected his national car monster once more like he said he would, and again you come here to gripe about it. If Atuk didn’t return in the first place thanks to you and your accomplices, this would not have been a reality. So face your follies and keep it shut.
I was wondering actually government got read all this comment or not?
This government is real disgusting, he really think he is leader in asean, if wanna come out a asean car should be from Indonesia Thailand etc ….. not this failure proven malaysia (proton)
Its a rebadge proton tiara with new paint and new sportrim.. plus a voice recognition gps.
New National car is a waste of money and more suffering to the rakyat. The rakyat already suffered so much with high car prices the past 30 years because of protectionism towards Proton. Because Proton was protected, all non national car prices went up by 700%
You see, in the late 80s, a brand new Nissan 130Y or a Toyota Corolla was only RM20k. 30 years later in Malaysia, the Toyota Corolla Altis in Malaysia has jumped 700% to RM139k
But in Japan, the same Toyota Corolla has only gone up 50% in price from 1985 to 2018. (50% vs 700%)
So how come Malaysia, the Toyota Corolla went up to RM139k which is 700% increase? The answer is very clear. It is sheer protectionism towards Proton. Cars globally have actually gone up super slow the past 30 yrs because of automation, economies of scale and volume selling.
So, rakyat had to suffer the past 30 years with super high car prices and super high car loans. It is estimated that if Proton was not born, Rakyat would have spent RM300 billion less on cars the past 20 years.
We don’t need another nightmare.
Siapa brani jadi guinea pig
Hey.. are you prety sure about what writing? Is you have economy developer project for our country please share, dont’ be only keybord warriow, let’s share what best you have..
What bout other ASEAN price for Corolla during those time.
@kzm
You should be asking about current car to salary ratio instead. Can you imagine paying the price of a PPR flat for a Toyota Vios now?
n 1985, before Proton was born, a brand new Mercedes Benz 200 was RM57k. Many Malaysians could afford to buy a Mercedes.
Infact, it was so cheap that many teksi drivers bought Mercedes as their teksis. In the 80s, there were thousands of brand new Mercedes 240D and 300D Mercedes as teksis in Malaysia.
Today in 2018, the Mercedes is RM400k. Who really can afford? By the way, the German price in Europe for the E200 from 1985 to 2018 has hardly gone up by 70% in price.
Do you know why our Mercedes has gone up from RM57k to RM400k from 1985 to 2018? (nearly 700% increase)
The answer is Protectionism Towards Proton. Now, history repeats…..protection towards 3rd national car. One day, the Mercedes E200 will be RM800k when Protiga is protected
Ur argument does not make sense. Do you have data for other ASEAN country price in 1985 to 2018? Just use one country to compare is not accurate. Put several country will be more accurate. How much E200 then (1985) n now (2018) in Thai?
The million dollar question is, will Mahathir ditch his porsche for this car? Will his son ditch his bugatti? Will his other family members ditch their mercedes and bmw? Those two companies are under kahzanah, to say theyvare private is like saying petronas is a private company too… which explains why mahathir used petronas money like his fathets bank account, to bailout his sons failed shipping company for 2 billion ringgit.
Just anoter sohaii statement in Malaysia
Just be transparent lah! Why dont say who will join? Why didnt any of the participating countries make the announcement as well? And wasnt this project supposed to be a new NATIONAL car project, so why now involving other ASEAN countries? Does it mean they have “sold” this project to the other parties? Malaysia have been sold as they previous shouted?
This is so fishy from this stinky gomen. Talk about transparency before GE, now they themselves are shrouded with questions. Like a crab teaching its offspring to walk straight. Yet another useless Minister like LokLok.
Lolz! Well said bro! Up there that paid Gov sapoter is trying to divert attention by talking about P1 but the real topic is Perotiga. He spins and spins but still hit back on himself. What a pitiful fool.
Syukurlah Malaysia masih aman.
I dont know whats wrong with the national car mentality. I seriously cant gather enough cow sense to justify this action. Let alone all the brains in the new govt. Are they too afraid to voice out their disagreement?
They are busy getting fat with the perks of being in Government. Why would they bother to touch his sacred cow? Remember the last politician who dared to do that? See what happened to him?
if you voice out, the supreme leader will express his disappointment and mock the population for just wanting to be consumers.
“Malaysia would become a country of consumers, paddy field planters and fishermen.
“Forget about Vision 2020,” he said sardonically.
My thought too. It seems they don’t have balls to confront M in this depressing issue.
“Are they too afraid to voice out their disagreement?”
Yes they r. Do u know what happen to those who disagree with him?
Bo hood
I don’t understand why no competition… If it is marketed in the malaysia market, of course it will compete with other car brand, not to forget that proton under geely is ambitious to expand its wing to the SEA region… So the excuse given by the minister is quite lame…
NNCP will not compete with Proton…
Not Perodua nor the others…
Are they making toy cars or something…?!
If so, i think it will compete with Hot Wheels…
Reliability and spare parts will be an issues later when owning this 3rd world car
All these optimism. When it fails then who are they gonna blame it on? The “RAKYAT” for not being faithfull supporters of our own national brand????? OR WILL THEY CHANGE AND BLAME IT UPON THEMSELFVES???
Just blame najib and BN
theres no value in third national car? We have to produce something to export. For how long do we want to rely on OIl, palm oil and rubber?
The new government should do a public vote to see whether the rakyat agrees with the 3rd National Car Project.
They did. Its called GE14, and the rakyat has voted for this.
Tun is chopping RM billions from Gamuda mrt project, introducing new taxes,but using Silterra ,another money sucker to start Protiga.Tun,many thinking maybe even the Tabung Harapan duit will be ploughed into this pet project.We voted to remove the bandits, not start yr pet project.We voted for regime change, not Protiga…a clear n present danger.
LOL National already upgraded to Panasonic decades ago…
Why must car project?
Why not sampan project?
Why not motor boat project?
Why not commercial jet project?
Why not spaceship project?
Because he build too much toll
Made in Malaysia… U think indon will buy? Thai will buy? Vietnam will buy? Singapore will buy? Philipine will buy? Sorry bro….
please just stop
Yeah stop your childish comments here
You all just shut up and do other stuffs. This is Mahathir we’re talking about. He needs to solve our 1 trillion debt incurred by Najib. That’s why we need this 3rd national car.
TUN:”I want trillion debt”
Macai:”Here new calculation”
If its got 4 wheel, then it will compete with anything with 4 wheels. What the people is concern is for the government to protect this 3rd National car by making the prices of other makes more expensive or preventing new brand/models from entering the market. If other brands can produce cheaper products, then MITI must not make the approved price higher than what is submitted by seller.
If not compete with p1 n p2.. compete in premium segment or what? Compete with Vinfast?
@kzm
Do you really want this new company to kill off both companies?
Why is he so scared to say No to Madey. Just say no lah! say teh sentiment is not good for another national car. Just pick any FB posting to prove your No statement. No need to beat around the bushes. No country wants to participate in this useless projects. Each have their own problems with such as Indonesia’s earthquake, Philipines’s terrorist, Vietnam’s have their own Vinfast, Myanmar’s ethnic cleansing, Singapore??, Brunei??, Thailand?? They don’t even care..their auto industries are booming
The OBVIOUS question – why can’t Proton source ASEAN parts too?
Why need P3 to do this?
“Proton already has achieved it’s objective” -WHAT? So Proton’s objective is only to sell in Malaysia? Then why they bother to try (and fail) to export to UK & Australia?
This guy is talking outta rear end.
99.5% of people don’t want P3. The other 0.5% stands to profit from P3 at the loss of the 99.5%
before you produce new product to complete with others.
You must change your workers and supplier mindset to complete equally before you talk.
Abolish the car AP to all the cronies before you talk.
Biler nak announce all the new protectionism measures to support this NewNationalCar? Cepat² la announce, rakyat malaysia dah tak sabar nak berkorban untuk negara. Tolong announce all the purported new taxes jugak. Goodie² tak sabar nya!
Same approach and big numbers given when Proton was set up. After billions of rakyat’s RM, what are the numbers?
The NNCP is just gonna get destroyed by Geely-Proton.
How come its not going to compete with other car brands such as proton and perodua? unless the latter sold inclusively in Msia while the new car brand will be sold only outside Msia. Different brands or cars always compete to each other, at different price levels and segments
How is this not competing with pro1 and pro2?
We have infinite people?