Over the last 3 years, with a sudden uproar of Malaysian public over Proton's low quality vehicles, turning away from Proton and towards the second national manufacturer Perodua and imported Japanese cars, Proton had experienced one of it's toughest times since created by the Government back in 1985.
Then talks begin with Proton expressing interest to be taken over by a foreign partner, and Volkswagen was approached as a possible takeover partner which with Volkswagen's excellent track record of revamping non performing brands like Skoda and turning them into profit machines.
However thing did not turn out well with Malaysian government's various 'unfair' terms which Volkswagen wouldn't succumb to, and the deal broke off when Proton launched the Persona, receiving widespread positive coverage from media with improved quality and built, sales were up and the Malaysian government expressing publicly that Proton might not need a partner afterall; pissing off Volkswagen and the deal was called off, to the disappointment of many Malaysians.
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But it did not stopped here, Proton then 'out-of-no-where' mentioned that they are in talks with PSA Peugeot Citroen, of which they have previously collaborated on the Proton Tiara - Which is widely regarded as one of the poorest quality vehicle to come out of Proton's manufacture plant; and then Mitsubishi was mentioned again, which was the company that helped Proton throughout the years with technology transfer, badge re-engineering, platform sharing and engine sharing etc. However with Mitsubishi itself struggling, and Malaysian market's predominant preference over anything badged Toyota or Honda, the deal did not make any further than just a short utter during a press conference by the Prime Minister Abdullah Badahwi.
The latest talk was with General Motors, where Proton previously in another move before finally pissing off Volkswagen, mentioned that they're 'considering' Volkswagen or General Motors; of which GM had focused heavily on the ASEAN market with it's Chevrolet badged Daewoos that had considerable success after the introduction of the Aveo, Optra, Matiz and most recently the Captiva.
During a press conference in Thailand, GM's South East Asian Operations President Stephen K. Carlisle mentioned that they are still very interested and open to talks for any opportunities to strengthened their position in the region.
"If Proton wants to talk, we are ready as we are always interested about collaborating with them," he told Reuters reporters at the event.
Having a huge, state of the art facility in Malaysia - The region's largest sedan market even thou with a mere 25 million population, given the apparent lack of interest in the government's pursue for public transport, of which many Malaysians regard as 'crippled'. Proton has it's strategic strength as a regional manufacturing hub. However many regulatory issues and biased trading practices by the government that drove off many manufacturers and investors over the years, remained to be one of the most important factors in the possibility of foreign direct investments, or collaborations.
2 comments:
Proton WAS in it's best years when we had the 1st Saga, Iswara, Wira, Satria, Putra and Perdana. But joining ventures with foreign automakers ?? I don't think so. They should just stick on to the Japanese. Thinking the Persona is the turning point for them ? They can do better than that. Corruption is too high in Malaysia. Everybody wants a piece of something in everything. I'd say, STOP focusing on their already-full pockets, instead lets give the National Car Brand it's much-needed attention please ? We are SO far behind ok ?
Proton will only learn if the government let them prospering themselves, but the only way the government can 'not help' them, is to remove the heavy import taxes of imported cars, which should be an impossible thing to happen, and Proton will not make it, given that the Koreans which used to be the closest thing to Proton 10 years back, had move on and up.
Moreover Malaysians are already accustomed to the pricing structure of foreign makes. Ever wondered why CKD Mercedes or BMW only costs a fraction lesser than those imported BMWs? Yes, outright lucrative profits from selling prices the market had used to be subsidizing for premium makes.
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