Proton S50 – new Preve/Waja replacement rendered
22 January 2021 7:55 pm / 62 comments
During the launch of the Proton Saga facelift in August 2019, the national carmaker revealed its product launch strategy, which would see one new model be introduced every year. Since then, we’ve already welcomed the X50 in 2020, so if the company keeps to its game plan, what should we look forward to this year?
Referring to the presentation slide shown at the time, 2021 should see the arrival of a new Proton sedan, although the company has yet to provide any preliminary details, including what segment such a model will occupy.
Geely sold 1.32m cars in 2020, expands China market share, maintains best-selling domestic brand status
7 January 2021 1:00 pm / 13 comments
Geely has reported sales of 1,320,217 units in 2020 (including Lynk & Co), beating its 2020 revised annual target. The carmaker says that both its namesake brand and Lynk & Co have seen market share grow, and Geely retains its position as the best-selling Chinese brand for four consecutive years. The 2019 tally was 1,361,560 units, so it’s just slightly lower despite a virtual shutdown of China’s auto market in Q1 due to Covid-19.
China has bounced back from the coronavirus and life there is pretty much normal these days, in contrast to many parts of the world. Geely will “focus on adjusting it product strategy” this year, and with new models on the way, its 2021 sales target is 1.53 million units, a 16% increase from 2020.
Proton in 2021 – new S50 sedan, V70 MPV or X90 SUV?
28 December 2020 8:06 pm / 91 comments
With the Proton X50 having finally been launched, the public’s attention now turns to the next upcoming model. The company’s chief executive officer Li Chunrong has already said that Proton is capable of launching one new product every year, and speculation is rife that the national carmaker is preparing either an S50 sedan, a V70 MPV or an X90 SUV as its next car for a 2021 launch.
Thanks to a company presentation last year, we already have a rough idea of what should come next – a new sedan in 2021 and 2022, then another SUV in 2023. But these timescales are far from set in stone; it was previously projected that an MPV based on the Geely Jiaji would be the first to arrive this year, and we all know how that turned out.
Proton X50 SUV launched – RM79,200 to RM103,300
27 October 2020 11:17 am / 168 comments
You’ve been waiting years for this moment to come, and now it’s finally here! The new Proton X50 SUV has at last been launched, marking the national carmaker’s entry into the lucrative and hotly contested B-segment crossover market, with highly competitive specifications and pricing.
The latter is the piece of information you’ve all been dying to know, so let’s not waste any more time. The X50 is priced at
RM79,200 for the base 1.5T Standard,
RM84,800 for the Executive,
RM93,200 for the Premium and
RM103,300 for the amusingly-named 1.5 TGDi Flagship. East Malaysia prices are RM2,000 higher across the board – this differs from the X70, which is priced the same on both sides of the country.
16 December 2020 4:54 pm / 28 comments
During an interview with Håkan Sandquist, director of powertrain strategy at China Euro Vehicle Technology (CEVT), it was revealed that the base engine used in the Volvo XC40 Recharge T5 is the same found in the Proton X50 as well as the Geely Binyue.
As a brief recap, the XC40 Recharge T5 is the plug-in hybrid variant of Volvo’s compact SUV, which was recently launched in Thailand back in early November. The model comes fully imported from Malaysia, so there’s a strong likelihood that we’ll be getting it as an alternative to the non-hybrid T5 AWD variant currently on sale.