At Proton’s media night yesterday, CEO Li Chunrong touted the achievements the national carmaker has made since it entered a “strategic partnership” with Geely back in 2017 (and the eight years since he was tapped to run the firm in 2018). The company may still be a ways away from its stated goal, but there’s no denying it has come far.
It’s hard to imagine the state Proton was in eight years ago. The December 2018 debut of its first joint venture product, the X70, didn’t stop sales from sliding to a new low of 64,764 units. The company was also haemorrhaging money every year, having registered a loss of RM1.2 billion the year before; as Li put it, Proton was on the brink of bankruptcy.
The company responded by leveraging its partnership in a product offensive, launching several new Geely-based models and updating its indigenously-designed ones. Li said the company introduced a total of 34 new models, although as you can see in the image below, this includes a number of special editions such as the limited-run R3 variants and even cars from the smart brand. But the point still stands.
Quality is another area where Proton made a significant leap, with Li claiming a “10x” improvement. The company adopted Geely’s Global Customer Product Audit (GCPA) standard in late 2017, recording a demerit score of 6,388; today, this figure is down to 677.
Elsewhere, Li touted a greatly expanded network of 3S and 4S showrooms. Proton made a concerted effort to convert 1S and 2S centres even before the partnership, and having started with 75 3S/4S outlets in 2017, the company now boasts 173 such dealers nationwide. This expansion is made even more impressive when you consider that this does not include the 48 new eMas outlets selling new energy vehicles.
This has had a profound impact of sales, which has more than doubled from its 2018 nadir to 157,916 units last year – Proton’s highest in 15 years. Exports also surged to 6,000 units in 2025, hitting its target and representing its highest number in 12 years.
Proton is expecting another big lift this year and hit the 200,000-unit mark, which will be a tall order – but as we’ve seen here, it’s achieved some deeply impressive feats in less than a decade. What do you think – will the company be able to achieve its goal? Let us know in the comments.
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The 2017 Exora and 2018 Preve is missing from the 34 … perhaps because those didn’t have launches, instead going on sale quietly (?)
Since you can claim 10x improvement, why not and another 0 to make it 100x. No difference anyway.
10 times 0 is still 0 hahaha
Thanks for showing the foolishness of haters. 0 useful insight repeated by 10 haters is still 0.
After helping Proton feeding the greedy Hicom high-ups, and improving in all possible ways, this bunch of craps still unsatisfy and keep looking for a divorce and put a blame on geely for breaking tis and tat promises.
Quality is quality, quality and value can’t be faked because they showed themselves in sales.
Looking forward to their next target achieved, because it doesn’t matter I’m a buyer or not,
a strong Proton will make the brand I want to buy to work extra hard to give me the best quality and the best value too.
these statistics don’t lie. clearly Proton is recovering well with partnership with Geely. Nevertheless, we can see that other chinese brand is eating into Proton’s potential share of the market. more and more CKD models are coming in. I wonder if the government is aware the difference between SKD and CKD mode of entry. it’s implication on local automotive industry and health of our national car industry.
malaysia with barely 30million population is no match to chines billions. hence we need some form of protection when it comes to trade in automotive industry. an industry that hard to enter and strive to survive will need some form of protection.
Proton improved in this , Proton improved in that, guys please remember that it was Geely that revived the brand, if it wasn’t for Geely,
Proton may Not be successful like Today .
It is the Saga model which contributed to most of the sales for Proton, and it is not based on any Geely design or model.
If u just see the numbers in that sense yea! Its like u wanna compare u sell 100 eggs and brag about it and deny that someone helping u selling 60 chickens that fill up wallet more!
If you want to compare how Geely helps Proton’s sales to how eggs & chickens are sold, it looks like somebody is in the wrong line of business.
new saga uses geely engine
The Saga MC3 with the Geely funded Volvo R&D technology engine was only launched late last year. Before that, from the time when Geely became Proton’s strategic partner in June 2017, the Saga VVT MC2 has been Proton’s best seller.
What a surprise! The cheapest model is the best seller for Proton, just like almost all other carmakers. Don’t forget also about thin margins from low end models, so all carmakers actually depend on their higher end models for the actual statistic that count, net profit.
I am surprised Li didnt mention how Geely helped return Proton to profitability, no doubt with introduction of higher margins models like the X70, X50 and S70.
Last year, the Saga is the only Proton model amongst the top 6 best selling new cars in the country while the rest were dominated by Perodua, Proton’s closest competitor. Only in 2021 & 2022, the Geely based X50 had made it to the 5th & 6th position respectively, but it had since fallen behind while the Saga still remained in 4th place. Geely should be mistaken to think that they could turn Proton into something of a higher than an entry level brand. The Saga MC3 with the larger 1.5L Volvo technology engine in the A-segment price range is a good move, and Perodua should be worried about losing a significant part of its market share to the MC3.
Ur camera quality must be further improved, coz the slides shown r very blur in wordings
Hello there. Not easy when you are seated some 20 metres away while the fonts are not as big as road signages.
proton should leverage its strength from geely volvo in safety & hpf chassis. do proper marketing in msia, as most buyers are very ignorant and uninformed when it comes to chassis structural strength, cabin integrity, crumple zones and how it can save lives. in the midst of increasing car ownership and earning capacity, safety should appeal highly to those who value lives over fuel consumption or resale value. especially proton persona with 8 parts hpf 1500mpa, most buyers didn’t even hear about this before.
If not for Geely, Proton will still be stuck with Campro engines for another 20 years on top of the current 20 years of use.
In actual should one deduct minor change models, running change models and facelifts, Proton only introduced
1. X70
2. X50
3. X90
4. S70
5. Saga Mk.IV
Nothing more, nothing less.
The difference between china ceo and malay ceo.
One worked for business one is lucky