SUBANG JAYA, Sept 23 — Proton Holdings Bhd will soon begin upgrading high-selling vehicle models with a new turbocharged engine developed in collaboration with wholly owned subsidiary Lotus Group International Ltd.
he national carmaker will begin mass production of the 1.6-litre Higher Performance Engine (HPE) — which boasts performance equivalent to that of a naturally aspirated 2.0-litre engine — by year-end for use in its Exora and future Persona models.
“As you know, a lot of our customers today... want more power,” Proton managing director Datuk Syed Zainal Abidin Syed Mohamed Tahir said, adding that the HPE will open up new opportunities in the export market where Proton is looking to compete in a higher chassis class segment.
Proton saw increased domestic demand push its net profit for the quarter ended June 30 to RM84.7 million, up 55.2 per cent from the same period last year.
Stronger than expected local demand for Saga, Persona and Exora core models saw domestic passenger car sales volume rise by 17.4 per cent to 40,908 units, bumping revenue from RM1.9 billion to RM2.3 billion.
Malaysia’s second most popular car marque is also currently developing hybrid and electric engines with British company Frazer-Nash Research Ltd, South Korea’s LG and its very own Lotus.
“We’re not dependent on one. We’re going through a journey of acquiring and understanding and hopefully, one day soon, we will be able to master the technology,” Syed Zainal Abidin said. “We’re not going to reinvent the wheel. I think it’s bad for a small company like us.”
He declined to give a timeline for the project but revealed that Proton will soon build a test fleet of at least 30 vehicles for use by the government as it embarked on stage two of development.
“Once it is done, it will give us the ability to get better results and reliability,” he said.
Proton chairman Datuk Seri Nadzmi Mohd Salleh explained that such extensive testing was needed to ensure everything was in order before Proton’s hybrid and electric engines could be rolled out commercially.
“When you’re talking of new products, the technology is new and we have to make sure when we do commercialisation of new technologies, we have to test everything,” he said.
“Anything which is in the R&D stage will have a lot of flexibility in terms of the timing in terms of its launch.”
