Dr Mahathir: Proton In Talks With Several Japanese Car Manufacturers

By Hans 3 days ago

Proton Holdings is in talks with several Japanese car manufacturers on the prospects of future collaborations, says newly appointed Proton chairman Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad.
According to Bernama, when asked to comment if Proton’s former technical partner Mitsubishi Motors is amongst the companies involved, Dr. Mahathir said “We are looking at other Japanese automotive makers. Right now we are cooperating with Honda.”
Dr. Mahathir was delivering his keynote address at the seminar themed ‘Investment and Trade Opportunity in Kedah’.
Proton has an existing agreement with Honda which allows the company to rebadge Honda’s previous generation Accord model as the Proton Perdana. However, sales is currently limited to only the government.
The exclusion of Mitsubishi Motors is not surprising as the company has since severed ties with Proton following the take-over of Proton by DRB-Hicom, whose management decided to review some of the earlier decisions made.
In 2011, Mitsubishi Motors Corporation (MMC) had originally planned to contract Proton to locally assemble its Mitsubishi ASX, a key model in Mitsubishi Motors’ aim to grow its sales in the five largest ASEAN region markets (Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Vietnam, Philippines) to 12 percent by 2015.
The original plan, as outlined in the company’s ASEAN Challenge 12 document shared with its shareholders in October 2011, was to have the ASX locally assembled at Proton’s plant within the first half of financial year 2012.  
However, in January 2012, Proton’s change of ownership from Khazanah Nasional to DRB-Hicom threw a spanner in the plan and MMC lost a lot of valuable time in it. Clearly, the company was upset at the latest development, especially after all the assistance the company has given to the Malaysian government in setting up Proton.
When Mitsubishi Motors agreed to provide technical assistance to Proton in 1983, the company agreed to voluntarily withdraw from the Malaysian passenger car market (SUV and commercial trucks vehicles) as a demonstration of its commitment to grow Malaysia’s national car project.
MMC had to tear up its plans, and start from scratch to find a new partner to assemble its vehicles in Malaysia.
In November 2012, a delegate of senior representatives of MMC, including company president Mr. Osamu Masuko visited Malaysia to grace the launch of the Mitsubishi Mirage.
When asked to comment on Mitsubishi Motors’ relationship with Proton, Ryujiro Kobashi, Mitsubishi Motors Corporation’s vice corporate general manager for Asia and ASEAN office, product projects and strategies group headquarters said “Our relationship with Proton has almost disappeared.”
Kobashi added that Mitsubishi’s memorandum of understanding with Proton has already expired and the company will not be extending it.


Mitsubishi Motors eventually found a suitable partner in the form of the Tan Chong Motor Assemblies plant in Segambut.
The locally assembled Mitsubishi ASX finally went on sale in January 2014, nearly two years later than originally planned.
Separately, Dr. Mahathir also expressed his opinion for continued protection for Proton against foreign competition during a Q&A session at yesterday’s 20th International Conference on The Future of Asia in Tokyo.
“We cannot give up every protection we have for our industries. At the same time also, we need to find markets for our products,” he said. “To ask us to compete with fully developed countries, that is a task that is almost impossible,” he told Japan’s Nikkei Asian Review.
“All we are looking for, whether we have free-trade agreements or not, is (to be able) to protect our own market and our industries for a little longer,” he added.
He also said that rather than being dictated by outside agreements, Malaysia needs to follow its own policies of equalizing income disparities between the country’s three main ethnic groups.
Read also:
Buy A Proton, Save Malaysia’s Auto Sector: Did Japan Succeed The Same Way?
Mahatir: Proton Needs To Be Protected, Perodua Making Things Difficult For Proton
Proton’s Chairman Laments Lack Of Support From Malaysians, Aims To Ramp Up Exports