KUALA LUMPUR, July 10 — National carmaker Proton Holdings Bhd is confident that partnership with China’s Zhejiang Geely Holding Group will be able to regain both the public and market’s confidence by year’s end.
Its chairman Datuk Seri Syed Faisal Albar Syed Ali Rethza said the rolling out of Proton’s first ever Sports Utility Vehicle (SUV) model in the fourth quarter of the year would help see their target through.
“Our turn-around that we put in place in terms of our models, particularly the SUV, is by the end of the year.
“With the rings of technology that Geely has, we are confident that Geely is the most suitable partner that will be able to elevate Proton to a higher level,” he told reporters after a meeting with Council of Eminent Persons (CEP) at Ilham Tower today.
However, the production of the SUV, based on Geely’s best-selling model called the Boyue, will only commence in April 2019.
He added the meeting with the Council of Eminent Persons (CEP) today was also a good opportunity for Proton to share some information on the Chinese carmaker that bought over 49.9 per cent of its shares last year.
“The questions asked were on who Geely is because it is not a known brand in Malaysia.
“In February, they acquired nearly 10 per cent of stakes in Mercedes owner Daimler, worth over RM36.08 billion (USD9 billion).
“They own 100 per cent of Volvo and London taxis and recently they have obtained a technology for flying cars from Southern California,” he said.
He said Proton Holdings Bhd will also continue with discussions to revive the 2015 Indonesia-Malaysia project which aimed at producing cars for the Southeast Asian market.
“A memorandum of understanding between Indonesian government and Proton was signed when Tun Mahathir Mohamad was the chairman in 2015, so certainly we will proceed with discussion in that respect,” he said.
He also said the direction of Proton will not likely change under Dr Mahathir’s second time in office as the Prime Minister.
“As we seen in the videos, we have loaned a car to Tun and he likes the car very much
“So that indirectly shows the confidence that he has in Geely’s technology and in Proton,” he said.
