In just a few days, Proton will launch its first-ever SUV model, the X70. Based on the Geely Boyue, the X70 incorporates a few styling cues that are unique to our market and representative of Malaysian culture. During the recent Kuala Lumpur International Motor Show (KLIMS 18), Guy Burgoyne, head of design at Geely Design China, spoke about the design of the SUV and how it came to be.
According to Burgoyne, work on the X70 started over a year ago when he and his team got together with Azlan Othman, head of design at Proton, to better understand Malaysian customers. Aside from adapting the global product to our local environment such as converting it from left- to right-hand drive, powertrain refinement, suspension tuning and others, the group also identified elements that are distinctively Malaysia which can be featured on the vehicle.
These touches aren’t exaggerated to be identified from afar – it is still the Boyue’s body – but as you get closer to the X70, the details come to light. One of the key design ideas that are unique to the X70 is seen at the front grille, which is referred to as the “infinite weave,” a pattern inspired by batik and Malaysian wood carvings. You’ll not only find this on the exterior, but also on the speaker covers inside the SUV.
The chrome surround on the grille is also another standout feature, as its shape is inspired by a bow, one of the traditional weapons used in the past. Burgoyne also mentions the Malayan tiger as a source of inspiration, seeing how the big cat can be found on various symbols like our Jata Negara and obviously, Proton’s logo.
Therefore, the X70’s muscular body surfacing and the headlamp design are reminiscent of the body and eyes of a tiger, a further showcase of Proton’s identity. Aside from the styling adjustments, the SUV also gets a revamped GKUI Android-based infotainment system to operate properly in our country.
As a recap, the X70 will be offered in Standard 2WD, Executive 2WD, Executive AWD and Premium 2WD variants. All are powered by a 1.8 litre turbocharged and direct-injected four-cylinder petrol engine, producing 181 hp at 5,500 rpm and 285 Nm of torque from 1,700 to 4,400 rpm. It’s paired to a six-speed automatic transmission.
GALLERY: Proton X70 Executive 2WD
GALLERY: Proton X70 Executive AWD
GALLERY: Proton X70 Premium 2WD
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If this X70 comes here, Habislah New Perodua D38L SUV 2019 (Perodua Terios). As Proton X70 have better design, looks stunning, more safety features and powerful engines. Whereas New Perodua D38L SUV 2019 (Perodua Terios) looks same design as Toyota Rush because Perodua designers are always very lazy to design New Perodua D38L SUV 2019 (Perodua Terios), just rebadge logo only. Moreover, Perodua Terios engine has more reliable but boring engine. So overall, Majority Owners will surely buy Proton X70 than Perodua D38L SUV 2019 (Perodua Terios)
But Perodua is an association of manufacturers or suppliers with the purpose of maintaining prices at a high level and restricting competition cause Perodua doesnt allow other brands like Volkswagen, BMW, Mercedes Benz, Volvo, Honda, Toyota, Nissan to be at the top, only Perodua is only wanted itself to be at the top which is very selfish, highly offensive, snobbish, awful and disrespectful to other car brands. Lastly don’t buy Perodua and also hopefully Perodua sales will keep on dropping
Proton is no longer national car. So no need to keep coming up with Geely statements trying to impress on MiTi to get tax breaks. Proton Malaysia is dead and buried
Proton is as non-national as your Perodua. So if Proton is dead and buried, so will your Perodua too. Becareful what you wish for, or you will cut your nose to spite that face.
Better crash and die in a real Proton Wira than a fake Chinese Proton
More like better die in jepunis tin milo than solid p1 geely cars
Lucky we got Li Chunrong and Guy to save Proton. We must be utterly grateful to Geely and China for saving our National car maker.
Li Chunrong in 6 months have turned around Proton for the better what local CEOs could not do in 20 years.
Thank you China. thank you Li and Thank you Guy!
I would never buy Proton despite being a loyal Proton fan the past 20 years. Service has been so bad. Car quality is good but service stinks. Until today Proton SC will tell you when you complain, “Bang, ini Proton lah, what do you expect”
john, tolong jangan tipu sini dengan pelbagai dupes anda. Kami dah tahu!
Don’t cry for me Proton
The truth is, i never left you
All through the bashers, my mad existence
I kept my promise
To defend Proton
Sigh. Just because u got all the free time to create 20 dupes and make up stories, dun mean others r as free like u. I say again, dun involve me in ur desperate acts of stupidity.
poor john, kantoi again. Now try to cover up and blame the world
If like that dun sell any foreign cars here
Proton X70 prospect customer likely upgrading from current CRV, Harrier, CX5 & GLA owners
No Honda or Toyota customer will downgrade their lives to a China car. Dream on
10 years ago you would also have said this about Kia…..
Cannot, they go straight underground no chance to upgrade or downgrade
Just like any new Proton, always got hype the first year. Then 2nd year onwards, problem after problem will come.
This has been Proton models from 1985 till now, from Saga, Iswara, Kinght, Wira, Waja………Inspira etc etc
Just wait 1 year before all the complains come pouring in
That’s VW and jepunis new models
Wake up basher you stay too long in cave
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Just ignore john and his 20 over dupes. I ignore him totally. Let us comment on car matters and make this blog a healthy discussion
Both of john and John Minum Teh 8X, Pls stop fighting, I got too much headache, inclduing everyone have headaches as john and John Minum Teh 8X might hurt other readers. Even though john and other people who don’t like Toyota and Perodua it is fine. As well as if John Minum Teh 8X and other people who don’t like Proton, it is fine but don’t ever bash too much, you might hurt the readers and they might bash you back.
Anyway, Before you post this article, pls respect every car brands like Perodua, Proton, Toyota and others. It is called as Freedom of Speech. No more bullying every car brands please. And also don’t ever post rubbish comments and even fake comments. Stop fighting, it might hurt the readers
Both of Mario and Bros, Pls stop fighting, I got too much headache, inclduing everyone have headaches as Mario and Bros might hurt other readers. Even though Mario and other people who don’t like Toyota and Perodua it is fine. As well as if Bros and other people who don’t like Proton, it is fine but don’t ever bash too much, you might hurt the readers and they might bash you back.
Anyway, Before you post this article, pls respect every car brands like Perodua, Proton, Toyota and others. It is called as Freedom of Speech. No more bullying every car brands please. And also don’t ever post rubbish comments and even fake comments. Stop fighting, it might hurt the readers
I hope Proton X70 sales do well. It will be an uphill battle
Not only proton. Others overseas brand also poor quality & service . From my experience big name conti car is worst than proton in term of Q & service.
Apparently P2 only wanted to sell their SUV in 2021, they originally wanted to hock their old unsafe Azla until kingdom come. Unfortunately for them, X70 specs is so mouth watering and the 12,000 bookings frightened them so much, that they went begging to Toyota lords to gip them a Terios unit to rush the rebadging for KLIMS.
Another fake news from john, pls post truthful things john. We are not interested in your hatred towards Toyota and Perodua.
Tolong bertaubat.
Which part did john said was fake bro?
The SUV in 2021? That was said by Perodua CEO.
That Alza is still on sale? Yes.
That X70 got 12,000 bookings? Thats true also.
That Perodua desperado to hide & tease their SUV during KLIMS? Also true.
The only fake I see is your name. Tolong bertaubat.
Proton X70 will sell expensive with the price tag of RM90K without insurance , sure not sell well like perdana
Everybody will say bad things about Perodua. But end of the day, every year for the past 10 years, Perodua sales is 4X more than Proton
Perodua 200,000 per annum vs Proton 50,000 per annum
So PErodua bashers can talk all they want, sales figures speak the truth
The truth is pipu buy p2 coz it is cheap not because it is good
This infinite weave hype is so overrated. Proton shld already goes beyond this. Designing practical n beautiful cars from scratch, not just grills n garnish. More importantly, the engineering input shld be equally highlighted, if there is any.
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Proton dan rebadging… Berpisah tiada
Correction: Perodua and rebadging… Berpisah tiada
2018 myvi, axia & Bezza all rebadged Daihatsu.
Geely just bought Proton and Lotus for a mere RM170 million ringgit. Nothing to be proud of considering we have spent RM20 billion to bail out Proton over the years
Another Correction : Proton, Perodua and rebadging… Berpisah tiada
P1 still got homegrown cars but P2
What did our designers do? Boyue and the X70 look exactly the same.
We keep 10,000 Proton workers just to tampal logo ie Proton logo onto the Boyue to call it X70
I agree. So malu. After sucking RM20 billion in bailouts, still losing RM4 mil per day and we needed a foreign CEO to save the company. So shy
But but but arresting a foreign CEO after saving jepunis company from bankruptcy is worse
But Perodua is an association of manufacturers or suppliers with the purpose of maintaining prices at a high level and restricting competition cause Perodua doesnt allow other brands like Volkswagen, BMW, Mercedes Benz, Volvo, Honda, Toyota, Nissan to be at the top, only Perodua is only wanted itself to be at the top which is very selfish, highly offensive, snobbish, awful and disrespectful to other car brands. Lastly don’t buy Perodua and also hopefully Perodua sales will keep on dropping
Sorry Burgoyne, why need to discuss X70 design? It is just a rebadge, nothing to discuss about!
Sorry Toyota Rush, why need to discuss Perodua Terios design? It just a rebadge, nothing to discuss about
Yes, no one absolutely no one ever said a word about Toyota Rush design.
Your point?
The point is P2 is king of rebadger
Proton now is a 100% rebadging company cause Geely in 3 years time will kill Proton’s entire fleet of campro gas guzzling engines.
Prootn will be an official distributor for Geely cars in Malaysia. Shameful achievement for 30 years of automotive achievement
Sorry Teh Oolong, why need to discuss TehO design? It just a rebadge, nothing to discuss about
He designed the Boyue, you heretic unbeliever. He has every damn right to talk about his work, much more than you thrashing talk on Geely and its associates.
Still no price ???
Its the biggest mystery the world has known probably.
Still didn’t read earlier articles that say why cars like Proton X70 kenot say their price earlier? Here’s a link.
https://paultan.org/2018/12/03/no-official-pricing-for-new-vehicles-yet-because-of-delayed-approval-from-government-body-maa/
Now stop this negativity and read carefully.
Work started a year ago. And 6 months after that, test units of RHD version were on the road already. This shows conversion LHD to RHD is not difficult at all.
The Japanese car makers can do it all the time. No problem.
There’s a reason they’re called TEST UNITS.
There’s a reason for reading and writing tests, too.
The conversion work started way before design work start. Then both finished concurrently.
Conversion took so long, i think Proton workers as usual sleeping on the job
Tesla oso take just as long to do RHD conversion for Model 3. R u saying their workers sleeping on the job?
Try do the conversion urself. Create ur own team and try to convert it from ground up. Ingat senang nk pasang balik komponen bila dh convert. Same old Malaysian, talk only no knowledge.
So basically, the only major thing Proton did was the grille…lol.
Also, it’s suppose to be a tiger? If anything, the new Kia Soul is better at the tiger design. The only Proton where I could see the tiger in was the 2001-06 Proton Saga.
hahah… still not convince with their product strategy. Now need to bring in some mat salleh to hoodwink the people.
What product strategy? Its suppose to be product reliability and quality. And also, its marketing strategy. u need god to show how good the product is la?
just tell us the freaking price!
Proton X70 initial China CBU from China est. 145k
Azlan and his tiga suku engineers involved?
That’s it. I can tell you, confirm fail.
Fully agreed! Should leave it to experts Italdesign Giugiaro , the Suprima Prevé were good lookers
Pipu buy p2 coz it is cheap, not because it is good
(Like) Proton X70
(Dislike) Perodua Terios 2019
Salah!
(Like) Perodua Terios 2019
(Dislike) Proton X70
Now it is correct!
I think you forgot to change your name this time and got caught with your pants down
I think this person should apply him to join Parkson, Aeon, Marks and Spencers, Metrojaya and Isetan to sell ladies undergarments so that he will become as ex-P2 Salesman
Lolz! Gud one bro!
Great idea for an interview and very important for the launch of what is a very significant car for Proton – but shame it was shot so badly with major, very noticeable quality compromises. The audio was so bad the interview had to be subtitled and in other parts the interview was so out of focus, the editor had to resort to using other shots because the talent was so soft. A great idea and opportunity let down by technical unprofessionalism – which then reflects on the speaker and the Proton brand.
Proton Edar has single handedly bungled one after another this pre launch.
They wanted to copy China style of tease tease tease but that backfired with rakyat getting bored with it. Read the comments here, FB & forums.
The online booking had initial glitches as if the webpage vendor had not tested or dry run the beta before going online. Best laugh was at 10 AM launch, you were redirected to a BLANK page (malu nya). Even today, the Proton homepage doesn’t show the X70 on menu Find A Car or Promotion. It’s one of the few highlights that scroll across the home page. Miss that & you can’t get to the X70 page.
They had soooo many videos & stories that can be used from Boyue China but decided not to. In the end, ended up doing simple GIFs to be posted on Facebook (now THAT’S amateurish). If they say that Boyue is LHD & X70 is RHD, then why does BMW/Mercedes/Volvo uses advertising, advertorial, marketing materials from LHD markets? It’s still the same car with same features & benefits.
Proton Edar wanted to portray themselves as sophisticated , savvy, trendy but all the bungling has revealed them to be no better than a under coconut shell kampung hero with delusions of grandeur. (I attended that closed door preview at Metal Bees PJ & this is my conclusion of Proton Edar. They must have spend a lot of A&P monies on this closed door preview to wow potential customers but if you’ve attended enough of these type of events, the cracks shows glaringly).
IINM this model will be reskinned later, like accordana
This is typical Proton brand. Drama a lot but got no substance. Every Proton owners knows this. That is why once you are a Proton owner, you never Go back for second round
Vios ads shows racing between buildings has no substance at all
I cant believe this X70 just a rebadged Geely with re-designed front grill can tell so much stories…
That’s because you refuse to believe that X70 is so much more than just a rebadge, with millions of manhours put into the RHD conversion. You rather prefer in believing your own made up stories.
They should have dwell into the technical difficulty of conversion from LHD to RHD, the complexity of homologation, the testing required to meet regulatory requirements, the on the road testing to refine the powertrain & ride handling ….. Dwell upon the hundreds of Proton staff that were send over to Geely China not just for training but to collaborate with the engineering team there (some are still there). Dwell upon the upcoming state of the art manufacturing plant in Tg Malim.
So many impressive things that can be talking points but ….. they choose to dwell on the bloody grill infinite weave!!!!
Proton Edar marketing & PR team fail big time.
Most major manufacturers make both LHD & RHD so no big deal. Adjusting the rebound rate for the springs is normal and even the big boys don’t always get it right. With LOTUS in the pucture it’s a piece of cake. If this was a model specifically designed for the Malaysian market like what MAZDA did for the CX 4 CHINA ONLY model then one can truly say it was developed here….nothing more than a WIRA/INSPIRA exercise…
This is ori LHD for china market
That’s because Guy Burgoyne is in charge of Design, and not the engineering bit. And it so happened he was there at KLIMs. The angle of the interview was to focus on design. But yeah, let designers talk about engineering next time and let engineers talk about marketing next time. Good idea.
That is the classic Putrajaya style of stories. Do no work and let others do work but claim credit for all work done
They just tell so much bedtime stories, nothing important at all. Proton designers only goto kedai minum teh 10X a day and only can redesign a grille for 1 year. How to redesign the whole car if the designers only minum teh?
Hope this will not be another syok sendiri
model ala Iriz betul2x Onzzz .
While P2 caters for the mass market,
P1 has chosen the mid to premium segment.
Hope that the general public knows what it’s like to maintain + upkeep the X70.
Specs looks good but the figures differ in daily start stop driving.
Don’t forget 1.8 engine won’t enjoy fuel subsidy and also has higher road tax bracket.
It’s still early days don’t be so gung-ho +
stay humble.
Good luck P1, looking forward to your
future + leaner models.
The X70 design is a bit off when compared with the designs of French, German n Italian. The Japanese designs are copied of German n French as Korean designs are mostly copied of U.S. n a bit of Korean styling especially the formatting of the rear lighting.
X70 has to improve its design to be more sportier n forget the up market kind of fancy gadgets just provide important ones. Must be practical.
Most importantly the pricing got to be affordable n priced it below the Japanese, Korean, French, German n U.S. brands. Remember Proton still a Malaysians’ brand n got to sell well in our country. Otherwise Proton will be in trouble water once again.
Which SUVs you are talking about? Dun tell me those fugly jepunis SUVs
Our local university have some good design actually in the Proton and DRB-HICOM Car Concept Challenge. Some may need tweaks and corrections here and there, but its a nice concept that Proton can use for their other models.
I link my favourite design here.
https://m.facebook.com/protonenvysage/?tsid=0.6668600741649022&source=result
The competition link here.
https://m.facebook.com/PD3C2018/?tsid=0.6829077558155192&source=result
Hope paultan.org would do an article for this. Let the audience (readers) judge with their own eyes.
Any news about PHEV/HEV protons?
Why proton always miss the boat in design concept?As example, perodua design cute myvi and than proton coming up with iriz with same design cue and suddenly myvi change into new myvi..and proton iriz stay at nowhere. Cannot sell. Now the same with x70, for me it is already look dated in design…not agree, wait the sale figure…
12,000 bookings sez it all. Not bad what!
New myvi looks like dated korean cars
For some reason, u can find the infinite weave grill on the 2017 Subaru Forester. Hmmm…
Makes you wonder…
Subaru Forester grill looks cheapos
Interested to try the first Proton. But if the Premium model price exceed RM115k, I will not buy this as I have choice of the more proven model of Rush or X-Trail or CRV. Hope Proton make the right pricing strategy.
Rush is underpower while Xtrail CRV much more expensive
After so many years of exposure i had then solidly concluded Paul Tan’s comment section is encumbered with Proton loyalist and others say nay to them will be greeted with proxy account’s thumbs of bloody red and frown upon like you just reunited with your long lost father. Apa sini sudah jadi?! what’s the hype?
The rakyat now has something to be excited for Proton as compared to your Perodua. Why you jealous? Ask your company quickly rebadge the Terios. Not like they are doing any testing at all. More like teasing here and there.
Wow… that’s really a lot of design thought-process went into the X70. Oh wait, its just another Lancer/Inspira, Lancer/Wira, Lancer/Saga Suzuki/Ertiga… all rebranded models. Seriously, the X70 doesn’t need all these hype and suspense. People have already made their booking, so please go ahead and release it, and get it delivered. Then focus on the aftersales & service, Proton needs to improve lightyears ahead.
From Morel to Kenwood hahhaa
The rakyat might think Morel is lowya China brand, so they change to Kenwood since everybody knows Kenwood.
Is ok for me but I think it is good for small family like Range Rover Evogue or Mazda CX5. By measurement, it is little bit shorter and less wider than CRV. But since the price is way cheaper, I think can be best seller in segment. I like the way Proton is thinking now. For the rakyat instead of the cronies.
Hi ,
i purchased a X70 January this year, starting July this year, the problem with the reverse gear started, from july, car went in and out from service center. on the 4th September ,car is in the service center until today (5/11/2019). Call the local proton main service, the main foreman say have to get the Geely technician to have a look and then only can change the gear box. but the foremen say can’t reach the technician. Called the proton main head quarter , they say they can’t do anything( i am not surprised). so X70 car owners , anyone have the same problem?