Proton X50 and X70 now on sale in South Africa

KUALA LUMPUR: After a long gap of 10 years, Proton has finally made a comeback in the South African market with the launch of its highly popular SUVs - X50 and X70. These cars will be sold as CBU models in the Rainbow Nation via the brand’s official distributor Combined Motor Holdings. The caretaker will have 25 dealers in the country within six months, of which the first 17 have already undergone sales and technical training.

During the launch, Jebb McIntosh, CEO of Combined Motor Holdings said, “When the Proton brand became available, CMH jumped at the opportunity for several reasons, but mostly because we saw a gap in the market for a quality SUV within an affordable price bracket. There are many luxury brands selling SUVs in South Africa, but most are simply unaffordable to the average car buyer here.” 

Let’s have a look at the variants (with prices) of Proton SUVs to be sold in South Africa -

Proton X50 variants	Price	Proton X70 variants	Price
Standard	R449,900 (RM 117k)	Standard 2WD	R529,900 (RM 137k)
Luxury	R499,900 (RM 130k)	Executive 2WD	R579,900 (RM 150k)
Executive	R535,900 (RM 139k)	Executive AWD	R629,900 (RM 145k)
Premium	R579,900 (RM 150k)	Premium 2WD	R639,900 (RM 163k)

The naming of the X50 lineup is slightly changed for the export, as we have Standard, Executive, Premium and Flagship trims on sale, however, the specifications level continues to be the same.

Further, Proton has confirmed that its top-selling sedan in Malaysia, the Saga, will make its way to South Africa later this year or at the beginning of 2023. 

Talking about Proton’s presence in other nations, the Malaysian car brand is already available in Pakistan, Egypt, Kenya, and Brunei. According to the automaker, export sales play a vital role in its expansion plans. While holding its market share strongly in Malaysia, the company aims to exploit the latent potential of the international markets to be a leading automotive brand in the region. 

"PROTON is aggressively pursuing export sales as we believe it is one of the pillars to growing our overall volumes. There is a lot of potential for growth in our international markets, not just for the Proton brand but for the local automotive industry too so we want to establish a firm foothold while these markets are still accessible. Our aim is to achieve 6,000 export sales this year and while we remain confident of achieving our goal, there is a lot of work ahead of us to identify suitable partners to gain entry to more countries to achieve bigger goals in the future,” said Roslan Abdullah, Deputy Chief Executive Officer, PROTON.

In the first 8 months of 2022, Proton sold a total of 4,040 cars in the international markets with an increase of 33.9% over the total sales made in 2021. The brand expects an even bigger growth in exports with the launch of the X50 and X70 in South Africa.

Also read: Proton establishes PRO-NET, a new subsidiary for new energy vehicles