TANJUNG MALIM: Proton's management has revealed that a new EV (electric vehicle) model would be launched as early as 2025, according to a Hong Leong Investment Bank (HLIB) Research report on Wednesday.
The research unit said during a site visit to Proton Tanjung Malim, the national automaker's management had informed it that Proton’s EV implementation is on track.
"The first stage is to start 'smart' EV distribution in Malaysia (starting fourth quarter of 2023) and ASEAN. Proton is also collaborating with Gentari for EV development, mobility and ecosystem of new energy. Furthermore, Proton is leveraging onto Geely’s knowledge and technology to develop its own EV range," said HLIB Research.
Proton is also expected to achieve its fifth consecutive yearly sales growth in 2023, with sales in the first eight months at 116,800 units (14.1% higher year-on-year).
For 2023, Proton had previously said it was confident of achieving a sales target of 150,000 units, indicating a growth of 6.1% year-on-year, supported by strong demand for existing models as well as newly launched X90 (May 2023) and upcoming S70 C-segment sedan model by year end.
The distribution of EV smart #1 will also start in November 2023.
HLIB Research noted that Proton managed a turnaround to a profit of RM74 million in financial year 2021 (FY21) and continued to record a stronger profit of RM200 million in FY22.
Meanwhile, Proton has set a sales target of 310,000 units (25% EV/REEV or Range Extended Electric Vehicle) in 2030 and 500,000 units (50% EV/REEV) in 2035.
"If these targets are hit, Proton would seal the top sales position in Malaysia and top 3 in ASEAN. We expect Proton to launch one new model per annum for the next six years, with a total investments of RM6 billion including allocation for product development, production efficiency and capacity expansion," said the research unit.
Proton is also embarking onto the next generation vehicle CASE technologies (C –Connected Services; A – Autonomous Vehicles; S – Shared Mobility; E –Electrification).
The research unit also noted that since the restructuring exercise in 2017, Proton has substantially improved its product quality to now below 700 points (based Global Customer Product Audit), a substantial improvement from 6,388 points in 2018 (the lower the better) despite the increase in Proton car sales.
Similarly, 12-MIS (defects within 12 months in service/car volume) has also halved to 24.0 points (from 48.6 points in 2018).
Overall productivity and cost efficacy ratios have also improved substantially over the years.
"We expect continuous improvement in product quality and cost efficiency as Proton consolidates its production to Tanjung Malim (from Shah Alam) by 2026 with investments into better equipped production plants," said HLIB Research.
