Introduction of PROTON

Proton is a Malaysian automobile manufacturer headquartered in Shah Alam, Selangor, with a manufacturing plant in Tanjung Malim, Perak. Founded in 1983, it was Malaysia's only carmaker until the establishment of its competitor and arch-rival Perodua in 1993. Its name is a Malay acronym for PerusahaanOtomobil Nasional (English: National Automobile Enterprise).

It is a core member of Proton Holdings Berhad, the holding company which is listed on Bursa Malaysia. Over 42% of its equity is owned by a government-owned company Khazanah Nasional Berhad, making it government-linked. For more than a decade since its establishment, this stake was jointly owned by Mitsubishi Motors Corporation and Mitsubishi Corporation until they sold its stake in that company.

History

It was established in 1983 under the direction of the former Prime Minister, Dr. Mahathir Mohamad. Since then, it was Malaysia's dominant carmaker until the establishment of Perodua in 1993. Based on technology and parts from Mitsubishi Motors and a design inspired by Alfa Romeo, production of the first model, the Proton Saga began in September 1985 at its first manufacturing plant in Shah Alam, Selangor. Initially the components of the car were entirely manufactured by Mitsubishi but slowly local parts were being used as technologies were transferred and skills were gained. The 100,000th Proton Saga was produced in January 1989.

Until the end of the 1990s, the car's logo featured the crest from Malaysia's coat of arms, featuring a crescent and a fourteen-pointed star. The new Proton logo features a stylized tiger head, as well as the change from the lowercase italic text "proton" to uppercase "PROTON". In 1993, a model called Proton Wira was introduced based on the Mitsubishi Lancer/Colt. More than 220,000 units were sold between 1996 and 1998. Proton Perdana, based on the Mitsubishi Galant/Eterna, was first produced in 1995, intended for higher end market. The Proton Waja (Proton Impian in UK), which launched early 2001, is the first car model designed internally by Proton. By 2002 Proton held a market share of over 60% in Malaysia, which was reduced to barely 30% by 2005 and is expected to reduce further in 2008 when AFTA mandates reduce import tariffs to a maximum of 5%.

With the acquisition of Lotus technologies in 1996 from ACBN Holdings (a company owned by the owner of Bugatti), Proton has gained an additional source of engineering and automotive expertise. This led to the production of Proton Gen-2 which was code name Wira Replacement Model (WRM) before the launch. The Gen-2 is the first of cars to be manufactured and assembled at the new manufacturing plant in Tanjung Malim, Perak which is part of Proton City development project. The plant was opened in 2004. On 8 June 2005 Proton introduced the second model to be manufactured in Tanjung Malim, the 1,200 cc 5-door supermini, the Proton Savvy. Both the Gen-2 and Savvy, were models thatMG Rover was looking to rebadge when the British firm entered into collaboration talks with Proton. However these joint-venture talks were unsuccessful and MG Roversubsequently collapsed.

In 2007, Proton launch its new sedan as replacement version for Wira Sedan but with new name, Persona, which was previously used as an export name for models outside Malaysia. The new Proton Saga replacement model (codename Proton BLM) was launched on 18 January 2008. The new Saga is based on the Savvy platform, but using Campro 1.3L instead of Renault engine. In addition, Proton has entered talks with Mitsubishi Motors once again,^[3] and talks are going positive.^[4] This includes the Waja replacement based on the Mitsubishi Lancer and the rebadging of Proton Personaand Proton Exora as Mitsubishi vehicles in certain markets.

As of 3 August 2008, Proton has produced 3 million cars since 1985, where the 3 millionth car is a second-generation Saga.