DRB-Hicom, the parent company of Malaysian vehicle manufacturer Proton, expects to complete a new business plan for Proton in November this year. Further details concerning such a plan are yet to be divulged.
“Everybody is waiting to see what DRB plans to do with Proton. We are working on a plan now and hope to come up with it by next month,” national news agency Bernama quotes DRB-Hicom’s Chief Operating Officer, Che Khalib Mohamad Noh as saying.
Given the level of competition in the Malaysian automotive market, Che Khalib feels the need for Proton to produce a car that will appeal to the local market, and that is available at a competitive price. “That is what we are working at now,” he said.
According to him, DRB-Hicom has to deal with not just the workers at Proton, but the whole ecosystem of the vehicle manufacturer.
A month earlier, DRB-Hicom’s Managing Director, Mohd Khamil Jamil reportedly said that the company is looking to introduce a foreign partner for Proton Holdings. In this regard, the company has identified a few foreign strategic partners and has started initial discussions with them. He did acknowledge, however, that such proposals are still at an early stage.
“We are keeping the house in order first before we are ready to bring in any foreign original equipment manufacturer. This issue or particular business model is not something alien to us and we have considered it before,” The Star reported Mohd Khamil as saying then.
According to Automotive World’s forecast on Asean’s new vehicle market, car ownership levels are already reasonably high in Malaysia, a factor that limits the market’s growth potential; however, opportunities for non-domestic brands are increasing as protective tariffs are lowered.
With the opening of the market, Proton’s market shares have been trending downwards, the report says. The share of the market held by local OEMs such as Proton and Perodua are expected to drop further, as they have not utilised their protected domestic market to prepare themselves for increased competition.
