KUALA LUMPUR: The all-electric Proton e.MAS 7 recently successfully completed a historic 10,432km journey across nine Asean nations as part of the Asean Unity Drive 2025.
It was a regional road trip spearheaded by the Malaysia Automotive, Robotics and IoT Institute (MARii).
In a statement, the national automaker said the epic 22-day journey was completed incident-free and brought all drivers home safely.
The drive took participants through Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, the Philippines, Sarawak and Sabah, Brunei, Indonesia and Singapore.
“Completing over 10,000km across nine countries without a single battery issue is no small feat,” said Pro-Net CEO Zhang Qiang.
“Everyone who has ever worked on the Proton e.MAS 7 project can be proud of this achievement,” he added.
Proton pointed out that the high-efficiency battery system handled day after day of long-distance driving without a drop in performance or safety.
Among the participants was Mohd Adib Mohd Azam who said, "“There were some challenging routes where the road condition was bad and some of the routes took us far from the charging point.”
“We encountered one situation where the charging point was farther than the remaining range. We stopped at a coffee shop and used portable AC charging, so that we can reach a charging point," he recalled.
Another participant was Muhammad Taufiq Mohd Zin who said, "We had anticipated the trip from Lao to Cambodia would be challenging due to the availability of the next charging station from Pakse to Krong Kracheh, which is 356km away. It gave us a bit of range anxiety.”
The teams used local apps and search engines to locate charging stations.
Veteran motoring journalist Yamin Vong said, "What impressed me about the e.MAS was that it delivered on its stated range of 430km, from Kota Kinabalu to Bandar Seri Begawan, Brunei. This included the road between Papar and the Sepitang border, part of the Pan Borneo Highway."
"However, this stretch is under construction and, much like a war zone, had to be driven carefully. The e.MAS capably coped with the huge potholes and gravel stretches. It rained heavily on the flood-prone Beaufort sector and the e.MAS handled the bad weather and water-logged conditions with aplomb," he added.
