Review: e.MAS 7 PHEV - Really the best Proton on sale right now?

Let me start with something I didn't expect to say. After a week with the Proton e.MAS 7 PHEV Premium, I genuinely think this is the smartest car buying decision you can make in Malaysia right now.

Not the flashiest. Not the fastest. But the smartest. And if you give me a few minutes, I'll tell you exactly why — starting with sixteen litres of petrol.

Timing is everything

I had the e.MAS 7 PHEV Premium during what turned out to be one of the most holiday-packed weeks of the year. Hari Raya Haji, Wesak Day, and the King's Birthday all stacked neatly together, which meant I was driving considerably more than a typical week.

Trips out of the city, short hops around town, a run all the way up to Perak and back. The kind of varied, holiday season-ish real-world usage that doesn't come very often.

I also made a deliberate decision at the start of the week — I was not going to charge it. Not once. I wanted to know what this car does when you treat it like a completely normal petrol car, because that is exactly how a large portion of Malaysian buyers will use it, whether by choice or circumstance.

So. Full tank, full battery on day one. Off we go.

Sixteen litres

By day seven, I hadn't stopped for petrol once. The range meter was still showing 140 kilometres remaining when I passed a station and pulled in out of curiosity — not necessity.

I put in 16 litres. Not a full tank, just enough to see what it would do to the range. It climbed from 140 kilometres back up to 400. That 16 litres cost me RM31.84.

Now I'll be upfront — 16 litres doesn't tell you exactly what a full week costs to run. For that I'd have needed to brim the tank. But what it does tell you is that RM31.84 bought me 260 kilometres of additional range after seven days of driving including Perak, without a single charge.

My overall consumption for the week worked out to around six litres per 100 kilometres. Without hypermiling. Without trying. Just driving.

For context — in a typical Proton family SUV, sixteen litres gets you somewhere between 160 and 180 kilometres. In the e.MAS 7 PHEV it bought me 260 additional kilometres on top of the 140 I still had left. So while you might be burning through half a tank in your current car just getting through the week, this one was barely getting started.

Now imagine if I had actually plugged it in every night. For most Malaysians doing the daily commute — office, school run, groceries, balik — you might genuinely never need to stop at a petrol station during the week. Not as a marketing claim. Just straightforward arithmetic.

What even is a PHEV?

Before we go further, a quick explainer — because I still get asked this more often than you'd think, and the confusion is completely understandable.

A full EV, like a Tesla, runs purely on electricity. No petrol engine, no backup. Needs charging or you are stranded on the highway rethinking your life choices. A regular hybrid — your Toyota Camry, your Honda lineup — has a small electric motor that assists the petrol engine, charges itself while you drive, and you cannot plug it in. Fully dependent on petrol, just slightly less of it.

A PHEV sits right in the middle. Like the Volvo XC60 Recharge or BMW's plug-in models, you can plug it in for genuine electric range, and when the battery runs low, the petrol engine takes over seamlessly. No range anxiety. No hunting for a charger at eleven at night somewhere off the Karak Highway.

The e.MAS 7 PHEV runs a 1.5-litre petrol engine paired with an electric motor. Combined output is 262 horsepower and 262 Newton metres. The electric motor alone contributes 218 horsepower — instant torque, straight to the wheels.

Charge it overnight and you get up to 88 kilometres in the Premium variant of real-world EV range. For most Malaysians commuting daily, this could be your entire working week on electricity alone. Petrol tak sentuh langsung.

The Proton conversation

We might as well get this out of the way.

'Tapi ini Proton lah.' Yes. I know. I heard you from across the room.

The history is real. The power window stories are real. The aircond that worked beautifully for six months and then developed opinions — also real.

Nobody is pretending otherwise. But here is what is also real in 2026: this car is built on Geely's Global Modular Architecture, the same platform underpinning vehicles sold across Europe right now.

The DHT transmission, the battery system, the hybrid setup — Proton did not engineer this from scratch. And honestly, this might not be such a a bad thing if you're looking from the point of view of what car is on sale right now. It means the technology has already been proven in other markets, at scale, before it landed here.

Over 6,500 Malaysians have already placed bookings. That is not national pride talking. That is people sitting down with a calculator and liking what they see.

The Premium sweet spot

The e.MAS 7 PHEV comes in three variants — Prime, Premium, and Premium Plus. The Premium at RM119,800 is where I would put my money, and here is why.

You get the mid-tier package, which is the sweet spot between range and practicality. The full ADAS suite comes standard — adaptive cruise control, lane keeping assist, auto emergency braking, the works. It all functions well in Malaysian highway conditions, which is really the only environment that matters for most of us.

Step inside and things get interesting, especially if you have spent time in previous generation Protons. I want to be careful here because I have trust issues built up over many years of sitting in Malaysian cars that looked good in the brochure and felt hollow in person.

This cabin feels different. The materials are solid. The 15-inch infotainment screen responds when you touch it, which should not feel like a revelation but somehow does. The layout is clean and intuitive, and on a long drive — which I now have experience with — the front seats hold up well over hours.

Boot space is 528 litres with an underfloor compartment that is genuinely useful. Proton also throws in a free 7kW wallbox charger with purchase, worth around RM1,500. If you own a landed property with a parking spot and you are not immediately booking an electrician to install that wallbox, I genuinely do not know what to tell you.

On the road

In EV mode, this car drives like an electric vehicle. That sounds obvious, but it is worth saying clearly — the silence is real, the smoothness is real, and the instant torque response off the line is real.

Around town it is genuinely relaxing. The ride is soft and plush, absorbs the usual Malaysian road chaos without drama, and you arrive at your destination without feeling like you have been through something.

When the petrol engine kicks in to recharge the battery, you do notice it. There is a humming that comes through the cabin — not alarming, not intrusive, but noticeable after the quiet of EV mode. It catches your attention the first few times and then becomes background noise. On the highway at higher speeds, it settles down further and largely disappears into the general hum of cruising.

Speaking of highways — the drive up to Perak was where the e.MAS 7 really felt at home. Composed, settled, confident at relaxing speed. With 262 horsepower on tap, overtaking is never a moment of prayer. Sport mode sharpens the throttle response meaningfully and the car genuinely feels quick for its size and weight.

One honest note on handling — this car is tuned for comfort, and it shows when you push it. There is noticeable body roll through longer corners and some forward pitch under hard braking. It is not unsettling, but it is there. This is a family SUV built to be comfortable over long distances, not to be hustled through corners. It knows what it is, and I think that is the right call for this market.

The competition

The Honda CR-V eHEV starts at RM178,200 — nearly RM60,000 more than this Premium. It makes 146 horsepower and 190 Newton metres.

You are paying a significant premium for 116 fewer horses and a car you cannot plug in. On straight fuel economy, the CR-V will edge out an uncharged e.MAS 7 — Honda claims five litres per hundred and that figure is real.

But the moment you start plugging the Proton in regularly, that conversation shifts completely. The CR-V can never run on pure electricity. The e.MAS 7 can, every single day.

The Chery Tiggo 7 PHEV is the more direct comparison — RM129,800, so actually  just a bit more expensive than this Premium. It makes a combined output of 275 hp and 365 Nm of torque. I will say this honestly — the Tiggo 7 PHEV is a decent car to drive, perhaps even better than the e.MAS 7 PHEV.

But sit inside both back to back and you feel the difference immediately. The Tiggo 7 interior feels a notch below what the e.MAS 7 Premium offers. For RM10,000 less, you are getting a better cabin i think personally.

So. Is it worth it?

RM119,800. On a nine-year loan you are looking at roughly RM1,600 to RM1,800 a month depending on your rate and down payment. For 262 horsepower, a genuinely good interior, full ADAS, EV capability, and — as I found out over seven days — the kind of real-world efficiency that makes you question everything you thought you knew about running costs.

I came into this week without strong expectations. Seven days of heavy holiday driving — multiple public holidays, a trip to Perak and back, zero charging. At the end of it all I pulled into a petrol station, topped up sixteen litres, paid RM31.84, and watched the range climb back up to 400 kilometres.

I'll be transparent — I didn't fill it up completely. I put in 16 litres just to see what it would do to the range. So I can't give you an exact weekly fuel bill. What I can tell you is that RM31.84 bought me 260 kilometres of additional range after seven days of driving including Perak, without a single charge. You can do your own maths from there.

Proton has had a long and complicated road to get here. Not all of it has been pretty and most of us have the receipts to prove it. But the e.MAS 7 PHEV Premium feels like a genuine turning point — a car that does not ask you to be loyal to a brand, but to look at the numbers and make a rational decision.

And the experience and numbers, as it turns out, are very hard to argue with.

Proton e.MAS 7 PHEV Premium specifications

Drivetrain: 1.5L naturally aspirated petrol (BHE15PFI) + electric motor, dedicated hybrid transmission (DHT), front-wheel drive

Petrol engine output: 99 hp, 125 Nm

Electric motor output: 218 hp, 262 Nm

Combined system output: 262 hp, 262 Nm

Battery: 18.4 kWh lithium iron phosphate (LFP), Geely Aegis Short Blade technology

Transmission: 11-in-1 integrated dedicated hybrid transmission (DHT)

EV range: Up to 83 km WLTP (105 km NEDC)

Total combined range: Up to 943 km WLTP (1,000 km NEDC)

Fuel consumption: 6 - 7 L/100km (tested)

0-100 km/h: 8.0 seconds

 

Boot space: 528 litres, expandable to 2,065 litres with rear seats folded

Safety: 7 airbags, ABS, electronic stability control, traction control, hill hold assist, active rollover protection. Level 2 ADAS suite including adaptive cruise control, autonomous emergency braking, lane departure warning and prevention, forward collision warning, emergency lane keep assist, blind spot detection, rear cross traffic alert and braking, lane change warning, rear collision warning, door open warning, traffic sign recognition, leading vehicle departure alert. 5-star ASEAN NCAP.

Price: RM119,800 (on-the-road without insurance)