2 seater sports car from Proton in 2 years’ time

According to Dr Badrulhisham Mohd Ghazali, the General Manager of Corporate Planning from national car maker Proton Holdings Berhad, the company is planning to start producing a two-seater sports car in 2 years time. This would be a welcomed and very much anticipated move by Proton as they have the technology from Lotus and the experience for having manufactured cars for around 25 years.

He said that the planned model will not be like the current Proton Satria Neo which is a hatchback 2 door model but will mirror more like the Lotus designs. Badrulhisham added that they are currently in the planning stages of the new model and that in about the next one and a half year’s time, there would be more concrete information. He was speaking to the media at the Proton Carnival where the company gave away school bags to 47 orphans.

He also said that in order to fulfill the needs and desires for the people and to increase the sales and performance of Proton, they are looking to introduce a new model every 5 years where a new platform for the currently selling Proton Saga is being planned for the coming 5 years. The Proton Saga recently underwent a facelift and the new upgraded model, named the Saga FL has already started selling.

He also said that the current Saga platform has already been in used for 8 years as it was the chassis used in the Proton Savvy launched a few years ago. Therefore Proton is embarking on developing a new platform to replace the one in the Saga in the next 5 years. On the current FL version, he added that the model was launched based on the desires of the people and the market needs and the response have been very positive where Proton had already received 1,000 bookings for the new model priced from RM37,548.

He also added that the Mitsubishi Lancer based Proton Inspira is also set to get its enhanced version that comes with new designed skirts, bigger wheels and interiors and there could be a limited edition for the sporty sedan. Since the launch, customers have been more receptive of the top range model which is the 2.0 liter version as compared to the 1.8liter model where Proton concluded that customers are looking for more sportiness and performance.