Proton to increase prices from 2016, due to weakening ringgit

Kuala Lumpur: No thanks to the weakening ringgit, which is hitting hard over the pockets of the motorists across the country. Well, the bad news, this time, is that our very own National carmaker Proton is all primed for a price increase from the year 2016. The car price increase in Malaysia is not deliberate, it is seen as an industry situation because prices would need to be raised to compensate for the effect of the falling Ringgit.

The company has no other choice but to increase the prices for their model range because the depreciating Ringgit has scaled up the cost of import material and body parts and it is not possible for the carmaker to bear the loss. However, Proton has not yet officially declared the revised price list of their vehicles, so we cannot calculate the percentage increase yet.

Proton has been striving hard since August 2015 to mitigate the loss of weakening ringgit and its effect on the consumers. The local carmaker has put various efforts to reduce the operational costs and rationalising operations where necessary. Despite these efforts, it looks like Proton can no longer go ahead without increasing the prices.

Proton’s CEO Dato’ Abdul Harith Abdullah said, “We do feel the impact of the fallen Ringgit as many raw materials are purchased in foreign currency. The weaker Ringgit affects the company’s operation cost and the entire eco-system chain from the vendors to us. Hence, we are evaluating our price structure and the percentage of the price increase will depend on the models.”

Proton Chairman, Tun Dr. Mahathir reported that Proton is now joining the list of those brands which are going to increase the price from the start of next year. Thus, the company will strive hard to use more and more local content in manufacturing the vehicles. Once it will reach 90% local content, then the remaining 10% import will be offset by the company through price rise on vehicles. Thus, we cannot speculate the amount of Proton price increase, it can be either in hundreds or can also reach out to thousands.

For now, Proton offers affordable range in the Malaysian auto market, with Saga Plus being the cheapest with a price of RM33,243.40. The company is yet to introduce the much anticipated Proton Perdana Model which include a lot of imported tweaks. This we are certain that the Perdana will surely be a costly ride than announced earlier.

Besides Proton, so far several other carmakers have announced price rise from the year 2016 due to the weakening Ringgit. This includes major brands like Honda Malaysia, Nissan (ETCM), UMW Toyota Motor and Mitsubishi Motors Malaysia.

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Volkswagen Malaysia announces no price increase in the coming future

Mazda has no current plans to increase prices in Malaysia

Mitsubishi Motors Malaysia to hike vehicle prices