In its press release announcing the expansion of its Tanjung Malim engine assembly plant to include hybrid, plug-in hybrid and EV powertrains, Proton also confirmed that the facility now supplies components to Geely products sold in overseas markets, such as Vietnam, South Africa and as far away as Mexico.
No details about these initiative have been revealed just yet, but some quick Googling suggests that the engines have made their way to the Geely Coolray (known to you and me as the Proton X50) in these countries. The car has been newly upgraded in all three markets with the latest 181 PS/290 Nm 1.5 litre turbo four-cylinder engine, which Proton badges Intelligent Green Technology (i-GT).
We do know that Vietnam most likely receives the Coolray from the Perak town, continuing an arrangement in place since late 2024; Geely’s own plant is only scheduled to begin operations later this year. Given that the ASEAN nation is a left-hand-drive one, it stands to reason that Proton also exports the car to Mexico (rather than exporting the engine to China to be put in a Chinese-built car).
Meanwhile, Geely has only just launched the Coolray in South Africa, its first non-electrified model to be sold there. The car effectively replaces the X50, which was offered in the country before the Proton distributorship ended earlier this year. Having built cars for the market, the national carmaker is likely continuing to do so, albeit with Geely badges now stuck on.
Proton says the growing exports reflects well on the Malaysian automotive industry, “reinforcing Malaysia’s position within the global automotive value chain and demonstrating the capability of local operations to meet international quality standards.” It is already preparing to increase annual capacity from the current 240,000 units to 400,000 in response.
It will also be a boon to Malaysian parts vendors – the supplier network for the engine factory includes a total of 16 companies, half of which are local. The company adds that the initiative “strengthens the competitiveness and technical capabilities of Malaysian automotive vendors.”
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Potong got scammed hard into being a spare parts slave to Geely overseas
We are paying for national ego when clearly the M cannot deliver after 40 years of tongkat whereas the mainland C same too received tongkat but become global brand. In short it’s not about tongkat
Its all about tongkat.
One has 30m
The other one has 1.4b
That’s more than 46 x over
So need not hint any racism here please.
negara kecik senang diurus. kan?
I dont believe what Geely says, the reality is Geely taking over all Proton business, and one day Proton and its vendors will be out of business….
Type M sleeping on the job, type C resign? Tak tahu malu, malas, completely zero sense of ownership. People keep comparing to Japanese ir South Korean ministers taking responsibility and resigning, but they failed to realise that Japanese and Koreans citizens are not rent seeking, lazy, corrupted people.
Type M malas? Not all.. Type C and type I also not all rajin..
Can blame to Type M for proton failure, but most of the things in automotive sector also happened during type C n type I sit in the government sector.. Can say, corruption not only happened to type M only, also to other type.. Hut
Thai, indo, Australia, UK & other RHD markets?
Strong Export Outlook for Proton from Malaysia with Pioneer Technology from China,
It’s better than just export from China bypassing Malaysia.
automotive is a very competitive industry. it needs volume beside technology to create manufacturing efficiency. It doesn’t helps that each country have their own priority and protections to keep local automotive industry alive. to such extend that it will be difficult for foreign car makers to enter. it is a scenario that encompass countries that doesn’t have it’s own car brand. that’s the reason why proton have difficulty to step outside malaysia. same too with perodua. having Geely as partner have it’s benefits but proton and its supply chain must work hard to reach Geely standard and costing. to be part of their supply chain. volume manufacturing then become a possibility and gradually growing from there.. that is do able and realistic measure.
Well good for proton if that kind of strategy works.
But in long term proton might lose their market share to geely. Either they will end up become jaguh kampung like p2 or geely would swallow them as whole and pretend that proton never exist.
We get that proton desperately need geely but did geely ever need proton? Probably but not as important as Volvo.
Geely needs that Tanjong Malim plant.
basically we just cheap labour for unwanted china cars and parts
It is all about biz. At the end of the day, what you can sell is more important that what you can built.