The car company today announced it has sent 16 employees to Hangzhou, China, for a six-month training stint to learn about new energy vehicles (NEVs).
NEVs refer to plug-in hybrids, battery electric vehicles and fuel cell electric vehicles.
The programme will see them based at the Geely Research Institute at Ningbo and be trained in multiple disciplines involved in the development, integration, manufacturing, and sales and service for a new generation of vehicles that will gradually be introduced by Proton.
The first batch of Proton employees going there are a mix of experienced industry workers and young engineers who had graduated from the company’s Young Talent programme.
More would be sent in the future as Proton leverages on the technical knowledge amassed by Geely to develop its own range of NEVs.
Aside from training the participants in various aspects of NEVs, the work attachment in China will aid in deciding the final specifications for products such as the smart #1, the first EV to be sold by Proton’s NEV subsidiary PRO-NET that is due to arrive in Q4 2023.
Because usage patterns and user behaviour differ from country to country, input from Proton staff would be vital to ensuring it meets the needs of Malaysian buyers.
The ultimate goal of such training stints is for Proton to acquire knowledge and new skills that would help steer the company’s future direction.
“When Proton and Geely started collaborating in 2017, one of the pillars of the partnership was for Proton to accelerate its model development timetable by incorporating technologies readily available from Geely. That has been successfully done and now, we are leveraging on the global experience of the group in NEVs to give our own model development timeline a boost," said Proton chief executive officer Dr Li Chun-rong.
“Our initial plan was for the programme to begin sooner but this was put on hold by the pandemic. However, with travel restrictions having eased recently, Proton can now reap the benefit of being part of one of the most diverse and forward-thinking collective of automotive brands.”
Dr Li (left) and his deputy Roslan Abdullah (right) with the first batch of Geely-bound trainees.
