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tygyg1111

Captain
Registered Member
Sardaukar20 said:
Back when I was still in school in the 1990s. I had helped to draw a mural of a Proton flying car. To hype up Mahathir's 'Vision 2020'. Proton was Mahathir's pet company. Proton had dreams back then to be one of the leading automotive companies in Asia.

Look at Proton now in 2021. Owned by Geely, an automotive company only one year younger than Proton. And no flying Protons in sight. Proton is a great case study about the end result of Malay Supremacy, political interference, corruption, money wasting, arrogance, and stupidity.
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Malaysian version of "supapowa 2020"
 
S

supersnoop

Major
Registered Member
Sardaukar20 said:
Lotus had some nice technology in engine, and tuning. In the early 2000s, Proton wanted to use the Lotus engine technology to create a new generation of homegrown engines. The Campro engine project. Prior to that, Proton cannot produce its own engines. Nevertheless, the Campro engine project failed mainly due to incompetence. The engine was produced, but it was terrible, nothing like what it was envisioned to be. They eventually gave up Campro and went back to importing engines from Mitsubishi, Honda, etc. Proton had Lotus engineering input, and yet it still could not design a proper petrol engine in the early 2000s. They can't even reverse-engineer engine technology that they had bought! That gives you an idea of how incompetent Proton is.

Yes, having access to Proton's sales and distribution network in Malaysia is great to push Geely sales into the market. But there is one major limitation: Proton is only strong in Malaysia. In the greater SEA, Proton is neither common, nor desirable. Toyota dominates Thailand, and parts of Indochina. Wuling, and other Chinese companies are doing quite well in Indonesia. Geely would be better off just doing the sales and distribution themselves outside of Malaysia. Proton has no brand power outside of Malaysia.


On paper only. Geely is running the show behind the scenes. Because the Proton management are so clueless, they would rather let Geely run the show on their behalf. And why not? Geely gets to puppet Proton, while the Proton management get their free wages, and free credit. Proton still gets to improve under Geely's management. Its a win-win deal.
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Not to derail this too far into the automotive industry.
Geely is always looking really long term. I had read a profile about the CEO (now just chairman) Li Shufu, and it was relaying an anecdote from a Ford exec (I think it was Mark Fields) when he was negotiating to buy Volvo. So they have a meeting and the guys from Ford, they aren't sure this guy is serious or has the capital, etc. Remeber, Geely was not FAW or SAIC, they were small. After they met, Ford was convinced Geely was for real and pulled the trigger.

Even though the brand itself is not strong, but the opportunity has great upside. If Geely can turnaround Proton like they did Volvo, it would give them greater credibility in the rest of SEA. Partners will be willing to invest in the dealership network in the other countries like Indonesia and Thailand, not necessarily Proton, but any Geely brand. SEA is still growing a lot. They can go alone for sure, but they feel they can use the lessons learned from Volvo on Proton. Plus by having all of Proton's facilities, they save the need to build up the infrastructure for a new plant and can hit the ground running. You look at how Great Wall is trying buy GM plants in India and Thailand to see how helpful it can be. Also don't forget that Geely is pursuing a flexible EV platform development (like all the major manufacturers), so the Proton factory can produce Proton, Lynk & Co, Volvo, Geely, even Polestar in the future.

I will stop here.
 
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