Yesterday’s Proton Tech Showcase brought a deluge of information regarding the national carmaker’s future products and technologies, with the highlight being its Advanced Modular Architecture (AMA). Among other things, the company revealed that the platform has been designed to meet the highest safety standards and is capable of achieving a five-star ASEAN NCAP safety rating in the next 2026-2030 protocol.
That may seem surprising, given that the new Saga is just off the back of being given a four-star rating, and on the outgoing 2021-2025 protocol at that. But two things counted against the budget sedan there – firstly, the car was tested in base Standard trim, lacking the Premium’s side and curtain airbags that would’ve at least improved its side impact score.
More importantly, the Saga retains the same basic structure from the outgoing model – albeit strengthened with hot-press-formed (HPF) steel parts – meaning that it can trace its roots all the way back to the 2005 Savvy. This is therefore a tacit admission that the car’s less-than-ideal ASEAN NCAP performance was down to the limitations of the carried-over structure, rather than any underlying deficiencies in AMA itself.
The fact that future models – which will include an SUV and an MPV – will aim for a five-star rating also suggests that these cars will not simply be derivatives of the Saga. Rather, they will likely be genuine all-new products that take full advantage of the “advanced” AMA underpinnings.
Proton has also confirmed that AMA will support Level 2 semi-autonomous driving technologies such as adaptive cruise control and lane centring assist, building on the Saga’s basic level of driver assists with the addition of a front radar sensor.
The expanded list of features will basically mirror the full suite offered on the company’s Geely-based models, with blind spot collision prevention, rear cross traffic braking and a front departure alert also being added. This is important, as ASEAN NCAP will evaluate cars on lane keeping assistance starting next year.
Proton doesn’t just intend on remaining a jaguh kampung – with AMA, the company also wants its cars to ace the even more stringent Euro NCAP test. It’s aiming for ratings of four to five stars globally, which will be no mean feat as the European agency has tougher standards for crash safety and driver assistance, and updates them far more regularly. The good news is that the suite of driver assists has already enabled the eMas 7’s twin, the Geely EX5, to net a five-star rating, so the company just needs to work on the structure.
It won’t be easy, but it will be worth it as Proton intends to take its AMA products global in over 50 markets worldwide, built on an “export-ready” platform and developed in both right- and left-hand drive simultaneously. The company plans to grow in ASEAN, South Asia, Africa, the Middle East and South America.
Notice that Europe doesn’t figure in Proton’s export market list – that’s not a surprise, given that Geely already operates in the continent, including in the UK. But that doesn’t mean that its efforts to pass European safety and emissions (its cars will meet the latest Euro 6 standards, it says) regulations will be for naught, because as we’ve previously reported, the company has already confirmed that Geely will rebadge some of the AMA cars for certain markets.
The Chinese conglomerate does not currently produce combustion-engined vehicles cheaper than the Binyue/Coolray (known to you and me as the Proton X50) and the Emgrand (S70), having discontinued models like the Vision X3. Vehicles such as the upcoming AMA small SUV could therefore give it an entry into the competitive A-segment in markets like Europe and Australia. This would help improve economies of scale, possibly leading to more affordable products in the long run.
All this is speculation, of course, and it would all depend on whether Proton is able to churn these models out in a timely fashion. For its part, the company has said AMA will enable shorter product development cycles and product cadences, meaning that its future cars should be produced and updated quicker. This is crucial if it truly intends to more than double its sales by 2030.
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What BS Proton was talking about? The Preve was a 5 star NCAP car at its time and yet can’t make it into europe because of its euro4 engine not able to comply with at that time going to be Euro 5 standard.
Proton cars were capable of excelling in crash tests but it was lacking in proper exhaust emission control. Things like direct injection, start-stop idle function or even better – hybrid powered car.
Lets not forget in several years time Europe is transitioning to full EV, perhaps with exception on super low emission hybrids like Toyota THS V system.
And also with exception for eastern europe countries including Turkey. Can they do that?
Can any of the new leadership in Proton transferred to be based in Romania? Lithuania? Turkey? I believe they are willing to accept UK, Paris or some big cities in Germany but those countries are going EV soon.
Proton – Never Gonna Happen.
gomen will again force people to buy these local trash. The way is as usual, impose high tariff on non-national brands. Gee, thanks Proton.
What is Indian South-Continent, I think they meant Indian Subcontinent and have highlighted just Pakistan and Bangladesh a total of 400k cars were sold assuming the 300k cars are new.
Indian automotive market sold about ~4.7 million cars.
So some genius at Proton marketing decided that Indian market was not important or could not sell!!!
According to chatGPT
– Pakistan (2024): About 125,050 new cars were sold, a sharp 52% increase from 2023.
– Bangladesh (2024): Around 307,848 motor vehicles were registered, down from 360,861 in 2023. Most of these were reconditioned imports, with new car sales forming only a small fraction.
Petrol and diesel are super expensive in India so small cars but efficient like Maruti (which represents Suzuki using badge engineering) are very popular. Proton doesn’t have any of that.
And Proton is also highly lacking brand image, which is hard to beat with Toyota and Hyundai over there. Don’t forget India also has Tata cars as national product.