While Perodua is showing off a cutaway of its new electric vehicle at the Malaysia Autoshow 2025, Proton has pulled the wraps off that car’s main competitor – a new small hatchback now confirmed to be called the eMas 5. Except the wraps have not fully come off, as it’s still covered in copious amounts of very colourful camouflage.
Still, it’s very clear what this car is based on – the Geely Star Wish, sold in China as the Xingyuan. That much is evident in the rounded design, the sweptback head- and taillights and the most obvious design cue – a cut in the C-pillars that is filled with horizontal lines.
The wheels, meanwhile, are fully covered up but measure 16 inches in diameter; they should be the same funky four-spoke rollers that the Xingyuan uses. Of course, the eMas 5 comes with the Proton eMas roundel at the front and the Proton script at the rear and on the C-pillars.
The car is locked and heavily tinted, so we can’t get a good look at the car’s interior (or even tell if it’s left- or right-hand drive, although the wiper orientation suggests the former). However, we do know that the Xingyuan has a very organic dual-cowl dashboard design with an 8.8-inch digital instrument display, a large 14.6-inch infotainment touchscreen, 256-colour ambient lighting and illuminated dash and door panels, the former with a cool skyline graphic.
Other Xingyuan features include auto air-con with rear vents, power-adjustable front seats, a 50-watt Qi wireless charger, a 3.3 kW vehicle-to-load (V2L) function. The car can also be had with driver assists such as autonomous emergency braking, traffic sign recognition, lane departure warning, automatic high beam and front vehicle departure alert.
At the back, the Xingyuan has a 375 litre boot, expandable to 1,320 litres with the rear seats folded. Thanks to the motor being moved to the rear, the car also has something the eMas 7 doesn’t – a 70 litre front boot. We expect all of those to be carried over to this eMas model.
No technical details have been revealed just yet, but in China, the Xingyuan is powered by a single rear motor producing 79 PS (58 kW) and 130 Nm of torque, paired to a 30.12 kWh CATL lithium iron phosphate (LFP) battery that delivers a range of just 310 km – and that’s on China’s ridiculously lenient CLTC cycle.
The “long range” option boosts outputs to 116 PS (85 kW) and 150 Nm and has a larger 40.16 kWh LFP pack, but even then, it can only travel up to 410 km (again CLTC) on a single charge. Perhaps Proton will insert the 49.52 kWh and 60.22 kWh Aegis short blade packs from the eMas 7, which would be a good shout if it is to cater the car more to Malaysian buyers – and especially if it intends to compete with the likes of the BYD Dolphin.
“Proton eMas 5 represents our vision for the newest era of electric mobility, one that’s built for the next generation of Malaysians, shaping a future that’s smarter, greener, and more exhilarating,” said Pro-Net CEO Zhang Qiang. “While the eMas 7 was designed to cater to the needs of Malaysian families, the eMas 5, on the other hand, offers a more youthful, exciting and electrifying driving experience.”
Given its relative size and simplicity, the eMas 5 should be cheaper than the eMas 7; it’s just a question of how much. The car will likely arrive in CBU fully-imported form, as the EV plant in Tanjung Malim is only slated to be operational at the end of the year and will kick off with production of the eMas 7 first.
That means the eMas 5 will likely be subjected to import tax, as the exemptions for CBU EVs are set to expire at the end of the year; even if they don’t, it will still be subjected to the floor price of RM100,000. This means that unless Proton can get a special exemption from the authorities – say, with a CKD bridging allowance – the eMas 5 will probably be at a pricing disadvantage compared to Perodua’s EV.
The eMas 5 will be launched around the same time as Perodua’s offering, around the end of the year. With both cars now out in the open, the battle between the two brands looks to be as hot as it has ever been. Which would you get? Sound off in the comments after the jump.
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So its rebadge EVs all the way since cannot compete and design cars anymore …. owh wait.
I still remember a 2014 article Paultan previously published titled “2014 Entry-level hatchback round-up: Perodua Axia, Proton GSC Compact Car and Great Wall M4”
Well 10 years on and we find ourselves in a similar situation again with the Perodua unnamed EV, this eMas 5 and Wuling Bingo EV rounding up the trio
Yeah… made in China, assembled in Tanjung Malim…
Well, atleast some people called it progress & proud of it…
Well as long as the cronies vendors get a share of the pie then they will call it proudly made in Malaysia at inflated price and a special gift to Malaysian.
This will be so called 2nd Malysian EV come CBUed directly from Hangzhou.
150nm only for an ev….
battle of what? of who can rebadge better? lol
they way they jack up the price and slap with proton badge. Proud msian here LMAOOO
“Of course, the eMas 5 comes with the Proton eMas roundel at the front and the Proton script at the rear and on the C-pillars.”
Proton Engineering, beaming with pride at their latest achievement. Now that they’re shifted to EV, they can even do away with the CAD design data for the grills…
No wonder at all with this rear end design!
rm80k EV like rm150k cx3 size, if got landed house to charge why not.
Is quite clean I like
I stopped supporting proton after they stopped CamPro’s R&D. CamPro is the best engine in the world.