When Proton launched the e.MAS 7 at the end of 2024, the idea of a national brand leading Malaysia’s electric vehicle market would have sounded far-fetched. After all, many people consider EVs as a luxury item, a T20’s toy. Would they want to drive a national brand?

A year and a half later, that is exactly what has happened. JPJ registration data shows Proton has not just joined the EV race, it has run away with it.

The eMas phenomenon: Proton is now Malaysia’s best-selling EV brand, with 46% of the market in 2026

Start with the headline number. Proton registered 8,890 battery-electric vehicles in the whole of 2025, a solid result that put it second behind BYD’s 14,407. In the first five months of 2026 alone, it has already registered 11,642, comfortably beating its entire 2025 tally with seven months of the year still to go. No other brand in the market is growing anywhere near that quickly.

The turning point was the arrival of the e.MAS 5. The larger e.MAS 7 had been a steady performer through 2025, averaging a little under 750 units a month.

The eMas phenomenon: Proton is now Malaysia’s best-selling EV brand, with 46% of the market in 2026

Then the smaller, cheaper e.MAS 5 reached showrooms in November 2025 and changed everything. In January 2026 it racked up 3,068 registrations in a single month, more than four times what the e.MAS 7 had ever managed, and it has stayed in four-figure territory since.

It helps that the e.MAS 5 is a rebadged Geely Xingyuan, and its donor model is no ordinary small car: in China it has become the single best-selling model of any kind, electric or otherwise, in the world’s largest car market. Malaysians, it seems, have taken to it just as enthusiastically.

Another factor that drove the adoption of EVs are most likely geopolitical turmoil which drove fuel prices higher and a quota for subsidised Budi95 petrol. Many are just seeing the switch to an EV as a hedge for future rising fuel prices.

The eMas phenomenon: Proton is now Malaysia’s best-selling EV brand, with 46% of the market in 2026

The result is a genuinely remarkable picture at the top of the EV table. Through May 2026, Proton is the best-selling EV brand in the country by a distance, with its 11,642 units more than double the 4,599 of second-placed BYD. The Chinese giants that dominate headlines, BYD, Zeekr, Xpeng and the rest, are all chasing a Malaysian national brand. Put another way, 45.6% of every EV registered in Malaysia this year has been a Proton, up from 19.8% across 2025.

There are a few things to keep in mind. The figures here are battery-electric registrations only and do not include the e.MAS 7 PHEV, which is a separate plug-in hybrid model. Some of the early-2026 surge also reflects order backlogs being cleared and the rush of EV buyers ahead of the expiry of import duty exemptions for fully imported EVs at the end of 2025. Even so, the trajectory is unmistakable. With an affordable, locally-relevant EV in the e.MAS 5 and a more premium option in the e.MAS 7, Proton has done what no one quite expected, which is to make the national brand the face of Malaysia’s EV transition.

Did you expect Proton to lead the EV market? Let us know in the comments.

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