Datuk Mohd Nadzmi Mohd Salleh, the chairman of Proton Group too was present together with former prime minister and adviser of the company Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad in a visit to the Lotus plant in Hethel, said “The Evora would be more expensive than its £48,000 (RM252,000) and above price in Britain due to Malaysia’s higher taxes.”
Since its launch in England back in July 2008, the Evora which comes with a 3.5 liter V6 engine that gets up to a maximum of 261km/h has won various awards including the Best Car under £50,000 by GQ. The demand has been very encouraging where it was reported that certain markets in Europe have to wait up to half a year for delivery. Getting from zero to hundred would take less than 5 seconds.
Also present at the plant was renowned supermodel Naomi Campbell who, through her website www.naomiforhaiti.com was to raise funds for the Haiti earthquake victims. Vladimir Doronin, Campbell’s boyfriend became the highest bidder for one of the 3 special edition Evoras auctioned off. He bid was £320,000. The remaining ones will be up for bidding at her website and will close on Sunday afternoon. Come March 2, Campbell will announce the grand total collected at the Geneva Motor Show.
Dr Mahathir who had a test drive on the Evora said “Even the way I use the gears, I was able to speed quite a bit on the straight and could handle the obstacles very well,” He was the man behind the purchase of Lotus in 1996 and said that since then, very much have changed and that at present Lotus would play a more integral part to help propel Proton forward. He said “I’ve seen some of the technology advancement development they have accomplished,”
