Proton says the first five years of its partnership with Geely has seen plenty of positive movement, among them being a return to profitability, something it said was paramount at the beginning of the association, and a continued increase in sales annually.
These were among the accomplishments highlighted by Proton deputy CEO Roslan Abdullah in his speech during the CNY media dinner event yesterday, when he spoke about the progress made by the company since 2018.
“The last five years have seen us launch two all-new models (the X70 and X50 SUVs), updated our home-grown offerings, build a new engine assembly plant and bring more local assembly activities to Tanjung Malim,” he said. He added that the 3S/4S network has also seen a doubling in numbers, increasing from 73 outlets and two flagship stores in 2018 to 152 outlets and four flagship stores.
Roslan said that the automaker’s 10-year plan remains well on track and that it is aiming to attain all the targets it has set in the second half. One of these is to complete its as-yet-unrealised ambition of becoming the number one automaker in Malaysia.
“Over the next five years, our ultimate targets have not changed. We still aim to be the leader in Malaysia and number three in ASEAN,” he said. Given that competitor Perodua attained a record high of 282,019 deliveries last year and has announced a sales target of 314,000 units this year, Proton – which
delivered 141,432 units (of which 136,026 were domestic sales) in 2022 – has quite a way to catch up in the next half decade, but Roslan seems confident that it can be done.
“I know many will question how realistic this is, but allow me to explain how we’ll do it. Most of the sales volume in Malaysia is concentrated in a few segments, and so Proton will continue to have offerings in sizeable and affordable segments using homegrown products upgraded with new powertrains,” he said.
“At the same time, we will support the strategy to turn the country in to an NxGV hub as spelled out in NAP 2020, so we will also launch new models with advanced technologies. Tied-in to this strategy is our move to penetrate and leverage on the growing demand for EV, PHEV and HEV vehicles, also known as new energy vehicles, so you can expect more models in the future deploying several different solutions.” he added.
The promised slew of new introductions will be supported by the increased ability to deliver powertrains crucial to the production chain through its new Tanjung Malim engine plant, which has seen RM1.8 billion being invested into it to incorporate new technologies, among other things.
“The plant produces engines for models beyond the Proton X70, and going forward, there will be more variations of engines produced there that we will use in more models,” Roslan said, adding that the company would continue to leverage on the strategies of Geely’s technology roadmap and DRB-Hicom’s investment into AHTV to push for home grown development programmes.
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Sindrom Mat Jenin… when will they fall down from the coconut tree?
Proton’s overall sales first breached 100,000 in 2019, and then over 140,000 just 3 years later. They once even beaten Myvi in sales volume with an SUV twice the price. Then there’s the reduced expenditure and better management.
How can you call it a Mat Jenin daydream when they’ve shown results?
Proton better aim sales export 1 million units while leave local sales 1 million units to Perodua. Win win solution for all!
This is possible, even as top 3 in ASEAN. But please, no more rebadging and RHD conversion of Geely cars. They have the facility to develop a car for ASEAN market from the ground up, and the partnership with Geely can help with that.
I am yearning to see a locally developed Proton based on a Geely platform. Please don’t let Proton become the face of rebadged Chinese cars like MG, but for ASEAN market.
Nice idea but by the looks of it Proton is just trying to live their glory days during Mitsubishi where they make the most money re-badging and even more when they swap parts for cronies.
Honestly in the end of it will be based on the BMA platform but with some minor design changes for Malaysian flair since the tech. part is more or less certain for the foreseeable future with just 1 or 2 ICE.
Jokes aside. Proton will be no where near Perodua if it continue to maintain those old and ugly Saga BLM, Persona & Iriz model. These models are dated! Hello! Are you people in Proton still dreaming?
Perhaps, there is a possibility to locally develop one or two bread & butter models (i.e Proton Saga) using Geely platform.
But for the rest of the line up, it could still be very difficult, given the exorbitant cost of developing all-new model from the ground up.
Even rebadging also could not launch new car on time shame.
For some reason, when Proton wants to improve from their past mistakes, there are always people who think that it won’t work. Doing the right thing is said to be wrong, then doing the wrong thing is right (don’t say) …
Ah well, at least the past is the past, and in the future, hopefully they will be smarter in planning and making decisions …
There are times when they have to start from the bottom again and go up, hopefully they don’t get into trouble when their mature plan goes. That’s all I can say …
Well done Proton!
Credit needs to given to Najib for selling Proton to Geely China. Hundreds of thousands of jobs were saved.
Proton need to do more R&D and building an R&D hub in Malaysia to bring up the value chain and create more higher value jobs.
Just rebadging and cosmetic changes won’t help much in value creation for our local workforce.
Yeah, taken 2-3 years to release 1 all new model. Spare part need to wait 6 months.
Proton is supposed to be the affordable brand for the people of Malaysia but none of their models are affordable. Plus all their models are seriously outdated, even the new ones like X50/X70.
and in Pakistan Proton hasn’t given deliveries of vehicles that were booked in January 2021. Shame on them
Sayonara Proton. Geely will dump you soon
Proton, please feature a high quality speakers for your cars. Ditch Blaupunkt and collaborate with Pioneer or JBL.
Bagi saya, lebih minat dgn Proton X50, sebab ia lebih sporty Dan nampak exclusively keseluruhan nya.