Early this year, Proton Edar raised eyebrows by inking an agreement to become smart’s new distributor in Malaysia and Thailand. At the launch of the new Proton Saga last week, CEO Roslan Abdullah shed some light on the progress of the deal and the expected arrival of the brand’s new electric vehicle, the #1 SUV.
According to Roslan, who is also Proton’s deputy CEO, the car is on track to be launched next year to take advantage of the import tax, excise duty and road tax exemptions for imported EVs, which is due to expire at the end of 2023. He clarified that the #1 is one of the three all-new cars Proton CEO Li Chunrong said will be introduced over the next two years.
“Right now, there are some processes which we have completed, we are being very aggressive,” he said, referring to the details being ironed out. “We are chasing because it’s not just the media but also the general public that is asking when the car will be launched. We want to [finalise] the contract quickly as the car has already been launched in China.”
Roslan added that the definitive agreement is scheduled to be signed in December – a formality before the smart brand is relaunched in Malaysia – with some aspects of the deal being ahead of schedule. He also mentioned that the #1’s pricing in China is “very affordable”, although he expects the Malaysian-market model to have different specs and, therefore, price.
As yet, there are no plans to assemble the car locally, Roslan said, as the expected volume is too small to benefit from economies of scale. As a result, it is pushing for the government to extend the tax exemption to give it a bigger window to sell CBU vehicles.
Revealed to the world last month, the smart #1 (rather inelegantly pronounced the “hashtag one”) is the first product of a joint venture between Mercedes-Benz and Geely – the latter also holds a stake in Proton, hence the distributorship deal. It rides on Geely’s Sustainable Electric Architecture (SEA) and is slightly shorter than the Honda HR-V, although it is wider and taller.
The pebble-smooth crossover was designed by Stuttgart and features frameless windows, a slick-looking interior and things like a massive 12.8-inch centre touchscreen and a nine-speaker Beats sound system. In China, the #1 is offered with a single rear motor that pushes out 272 PS and 368 Nm of torque, along with a 66 kWh battery that delivers a range of 535 km (560 km on the Premium model thanks to different chemistry). Charging takes seven and a half hours with a 7.2 kW AC charger or half an hour with 150 kW of DC power.
Pricing in the Middle Kingdom is 190,000 yuan (RM123,700) for the regular Pro+ and 230,000 yuan (RM149,800) for the Premium, which also gets a suite of driver assistance tech, including Level 2 semi-autonomous driving. Could the #1 arrive in Malaysia with attractive sub-RM150,000 pricing? If so, it would be quite a bargain – especially as the more expensive MINI Cooper SE three-door hatchback, another part-German quasi-premium EV, is much smaller and has a far less useable range.
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in future Proton will only be a rebadging company
We gave proton so many years but it still failed us…be appreciative while it still has some values in rebadging cars.
150K for an EV from Daimler? Take my money and shut up!
A product JV with Geely china.
https://paultan.org/2020/09/11/proton-to-launch-two-homegrown-models-developed-by-malaysian-talents-in-the-next-3-5-years-dr-li/ …
Probably Delayed, Due to Covid 19 and the after effects of Covid 10…
But Promise is a Promise ..
Lol magical Rm150k price… No wonder other EV car brands pricing are over Rm150k so that someone will look cheaper. No surprise even if Wuling mini EV not allowed to sold at Rm40k price later. Same old trick repeated all over again. Tak habis2 nak menyusahkan rakyat.
Copy paste: “EVs will be expensive in Malaysia, even if car companies dare to CKD them. They’re generally more expensive to make in the first place, and with less local content comes less incentives, and thus higher prices.”
“If we are ever going to get affordable EVs, it will be up to Proton and Perodua
Yes, it comes down to this. The fact of the matter is, no matter how you spin it, nothing will budge on this front until our national carmakers make the first move.”
https://paultan.org/2021/09/04/opinion-we-now-have-premium-evs-in-malaysia-but-where-are-the-affordable-electric-cars-that-we-can-buy/
I hope close up Proton to let us buy cheaper car and better quality car. When it will happen since Mahathir no longer prime ministry?
it is better like that kan? it is proven some more like perodua. It is a business decision i guess. All company want to make money. We get better cars at the end of the day. Win win situation.
Potential for more units to be sold monthly than the Exora (400 to 500)
What’s so smart about smart?
The brand was created with their first model being a micro car.
The name is a reflection of it being a smarter choice to drive a vehicle that is better sized for city driving, being smaller, more maneuverable and efficient.
Exactly, not sMart any more.
Initial goal is to create sub 2.4m/car park width vehicle length which they thought its ideal for Europe condition.
But now, they forgotten thier soul. Soulless now.
This goal has been override by others, now The Squad, (Solar Quad) EV meet this sustainable Goal for the Europeans. Solar + EV + Micro size for European.
real smart bankrupted. what soul are you talking about when the market doesnt want that kind of product
I wouldn’t expect it to be priced that way. Expect this to be above 150k for sure.
So when reach out shore, wil b rename as ???
eX50 maybe
Won’t be renamed. Sold as it is
“although he expects the Malaysian-market model to have different specs and, therefore, price” Don’t give us water down specs and yet jack up the price.
Agreement only be signed in December? Why so late? Like that how to buy the car before Dec 2023?
Proton should think of manufacturing own car from scratch: design, build and test. And not just importing and assembling. Later proton will be the cause of our malaysian ringgit flow out of country if we continue to buy proton cars. Provide more job opportunity to malaysian and improve our economy by producing own design and built malaysian car. From everyone can grow and benefit from it instead only the minority earning with whole malaysian money currency down fall due to leakages by export.
Problem is our home market is not big enough to sustain the numbers required to justify investing in our own designs. With the limited resources, it is simply unrealistic to expect quality equal to global demands. This is the main reason why successful mass market brands comes from big countries like Japan, China, Europe (Though its a continent but they function almost like a whole country).
Not really, they actually can do it. A Promise that Dr.Li made during the launch of Proton X50
https://paultan.org/2020/09/11/proton-to-launch-two-homegrown-models-developed-by-malaysian-talents-in-the-next-3-5-years-dr-li/
But Covid 19, Chip Shortage, and the aftermath of Covid 19 hinders things out…
Lousy brand N oft highest depreciation value ev in the record at Western Market…perfect booby trap for (katak di bwh tempurung) msian
150k for a proton??
another car with every function put in the display, bad