Geely to revive Proton for right-hand drive markets

KUALA LUMPUR: The defeat of Proton in the Australian market is a well-known story and does not need much scribbling. However, the scene is not the same for the marque’s position for all of its right-hand cars, as a few of them have been welcomed well in Malaysia. Supporting its faith on this, Geely is eyeing to revive its Malaysian brand in other right-hand markets.

Sales for Proton’s nameplates like Preve, Exora and Suprima S have been stalled entirely in Australia, thanks to the ever-tightening emission standards. However, this dwindling is not enough to crush the confidence of our Malaysian automaker, at least not when Geely is controlling the brand.

Speaking at the Shanghai motor show, Geely’s Vice-President of Communications, Victor Yang said “For right-hand drive products, you should look at Proton. We have launched the X70, a right-hand-drive SUV, in Malaysia in December. It was quite well-received on the market with more than 20,000 orders already and has sold 8000 examples in its first three months on the market.”

The Proton X70 is one of the company’s poppet and has been in the news for sometimes. A couple of weeks ago, the company boasted its voice command system, which is one of the key highlights of the four-wheeler. The vehicle is also known for scoring a five-star ASEAN NCAP safety score and equips a hefty of safety and comfort modules.

X70 is more or less a facelifted version of Geely Bo Yuo. Since its introduction in 2016, Bu Yuo has been sold to over 700,000 buyers. But the Chinese auto-giant is also asserting that they would adopt more vehicles for right-hand drive markets including Australia.

Geely Head of International PR, Ash Sutcliffe said, “Proton has a lot of experience in developing right-hand-drive cars, and their chassis and platform development is really helpful for Geely”

He continued further and explained "For example, we do a lot of testing in Malaysia that we can’t do in China – hot-weather testing, when it’s cold here we can go there, and they have fantastic facilities, and they’ve got a lot of talent in developing right-hand-drive cars. So the match together is quite good."