Malaysia Will Have a Brand New National Car. Is That a Big YES or NO?

Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad is on the rise after the automotive company he founded within the Eighties was privatized and its shares sold to a Chinese company.

“Our ambition is to create another national car, perhaps with some help from Southeast Asia,” he told a Nikkei conference in Tokyo, his first official foreign trip since returning to office last month.

Malaysia has the capability to do almost 100% of the event of a brand new automotive. This may be achieved with foreign partners.”

Proton Holdings Bhd., the carmaker founded by Mahathir in 1983 during his first term as prime minister, had declined over time, even with billions of dollars in grants and subsidies. It was privatized in 2012 by DRB-Hicom Bhd., a conglomerate controlled by Malaysian billionaire Syed Mokhtar Al-Bukhary.

Last 12 months, China’s Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co. bought a 49.9 percent stake in Proton.

Mahathir saw it as an insult to national pride and dismissed the carmaker as collateral damage in an ongoing dispute with then-Prime Minister Najib Razak. He criticized the federal government for the sale, saying the administration “seems determined to bankrupt Proton and sell it because I feel it is taken into account the apple of my eye.”

Mahathir, who first led Malaysia from 1981 to 2003, returned to power in a shock victory last month. Now that he’s back, he desires to try again to fulfil his dream – and says the country has the know-how to succeed.

Malaysia acquired a lot of the needed technical know-how in the course of the years it partnered with Mitsubishi Corp. through Proton to construct cars on the mainland, he said. Some automotive parts are too expensive for Malaysia to develop by itself and can have to come back from other countries, including Japan, Mahathir said.

“At first, we have to rely on foreign technology, foreign partners,” he said. “But eventually we will be able to do everything ourselves.”

While the announcement sparked mixed reactions amongst Malaysians and even the international community, there have been some who supported the concept.

Seasia believes that Proton is understood to a wider audience within the region than simply Malaysians, but there are literally more interesting facts about this former Malaysian national automotive that even many Malaysians may not find out about.

Here are some facts and trivia about this primary automotive of the previous Malaysian national team:

1. Proton successfully passed tests in extremely cold and warm temperatures within the deserts of Oman and on the North and South Poles!

2. Discovery Channel featured Proton’s factory in Tanjung Malim within the Malaysian state of Perak, calling it “the world’s most advanced automotive factory.”

3, Proton Preve and Proton Suprima S have all achieved a full five-star rating from ANCAP (Australasian New Car Assessment Program), Australia’s leading independent vehicle safety rating program.

4. Proton exports to over twenty-six countries worldwide (as of 2015). Key export markets include Australia, Singapore, the Far East and the United Kingdom.

5. Egypt has certainly one of the biggest Proton Persona fan clubs on the planet. This group consists of all Proton fans and automotive owners in Egypt who share a standard passion for his or her Protons.

6. Proton is taken into account something of a waste. The company’s success was a national obsession and a cornerstone of heavy industrialization efforts. Proton had a rocky start, with the primary cars rolling off the assembly line during a recession. In its first 12 months, 17,000 cars were produced.

Source: Various sources including Bloomberg, Says.com