Proton is gaining momentum in Pakistan. The carmaker has officially announced the start of production of the Proton Saga in Pakistan.
The first unit of the compact sedan rolled off local distributor Al-Haj Automotive’s Karachi plant on October 13. The green field factory was built at a cost of US$20 million (RM83 million) and has an initial annual capacity of 25,000 units. Proton has 20 staff stationed in Karachi to assist the CKD work.
“The successful assembly of the Proton Saga in Pakistan is the culmination of the hard work and untiring efforts of Proton, the entire Al-Haj team, its suppliers and vendors. Even with Covid-19 restrictions in place, we continued to push to build our new assembly plant and as such, we are confident it will set new industry standards and enable us to introduce more products that meet the international quality levels set by Proton,” said Al-Haj Automotive CEO Hilal Khan Alfridi.
Meanwhile, the final CBU batch of the Proton X70 has been shipped from Malaysia to Pakistan. This shipment of 154 units makes it a total of 602 units of Malaysian-made X70s exported to the South Asian country since its launch in December 2020.
This paves the way for CKD local assembly to start in Karachi, with a roll-off set to happen in December. The original plan was for CKD assembly to start in the first quarter of this year, but Covid-19 had other plans.
“Despite Covid-19 severely affecting our project timelines in Pakistan, demand for Proton models in the country remains high for both the Saga and X70 attracting a strong following. Al-Haj has received 2,500 orders for the Saga and over 2,000 orders have been placed for the X70, so we wish to thank the customers for their belief in our products and especially their patience and understanding over the delays in receiving their cars,” said Roslan Abdullah, CEO of Proton Edar.
“Now that the final shipment of CBU units is on the way and local assembly has started for the Saga with the X70 to roll off the production line before the end of the year, we can finally work to catch up to market demand. This will allow Al-Haj and Proton to establish a strong market presence in the country to benefit future sales growth,” he added.
Curious about what the Pakistan market gets? Click here for the Saga and here for the X70. The X50 is the next model to be assembled in Pakistan, but Proton has said that it will prioritise the Malaysian market first, as there’s still plenty of demand to fulfil here.
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Tahniah geely , Luaskan kuasaMu!
Apakah kaitan Geely dengan Proton Saga, pekerja Proton di Pakistan dan investment USD20 juta dari Al-Haj Automotive? Habuk pun takde.
Sales sudah panas merecikkkk but too bad Gen2 & Persona CM is only meant for export to Middle East & Americas, if Pakis had seen these sexy beautiful Protons sales pasti meletop
It is astounding they managed to sell over 600 X70s despite the higher prices and pandemic lockdowns on either side, and that from a brand that was an unknown in Pakistan before Dec 2020.
Kudos to Al-Haj Automotive for working hard bringing in the sales and for having the farsighted vision to do CKD, thus not only helps them lower prices but also boost the long line of sales currently.
Of course this goes together with the car’s solid engineering and all credit goes to Proton for Saga and X70 being well received by the market.
The X70 may be a rebadge Geely, but a poorly done rebadge job will doom it and this is just not the case with X70, it is a well reengineered LHD to RHD car and this is reflected by the hot sales it gotten so soon.
Now that CKD will start soon, Proton must ensure Al-Haj’s troops can maintain the much improved quality level which Proton had reached. They must insist that if quality levels ever drop they have rights reverting back to CBU deliveries until the dealer has reach a satisfactory level.
Proton have a lot riding on this, being an autobrand from another Muslim country it helps a lot to convince the locals whom have far more choices in an open market. So all the best and good luck to Proton and Al-Haj!
Essalamun aleyküm parkirstan dan sevkiyat olacak mi Türkiye ye
Essalamun aleyküm parkirstan dan sevkiyat olacak mi Türkiye ye
macam2 ada..