If Proton Goes Kaput, We Will Have A High Income Nation ?

Did you all know that the Proton Preve has bombed? You can hardly see a Preve on the road. I believe it was priced at RM70k+. (Do correct me if I am mistaken).

The Proton Prima has also bombed. You can hardly see a Proton Prima on the road. Cant recall the price.

The latest is the Proton Iriz.  A small car at 1.6 litres. Priced in excess of RM50,000. Anyone wants to guess how it will perform?

Perodua has released another blockbuster ie the Perodua Axia. A cute get-about at 1.0 litres. The basic model is RM28,000. With some add ons it is RM30,000. Still too expensive for a 1.0 litre car but more affordable.  Plus it will give about 20 km or more per litre (50 - 60 mpg).  We are trading up our handy and hardy Kancil that has served us so well. 

Market talk is plenty of Proton buyers are cancelling their bookings and opting for the Perodua Axia.  The waiting period for a Perodua Axia is now anything between 5 to 8 months.

In Europe auto giants like Fiat, Citroen, Peugeot team up to share development costs for new car chassis. They share some models. They share the costs of developing new chassis because it costs so much money to do so.  

So does Proton have the money and the technical capacity to develop its own chassis or its own technology? 

European auto giants like Rover, Rolls Royce, Bentley, Volvo  etc  have been taken over by other companies because they cannot afford to stay in business. The costs are too high and they could not sell enough cars.  

So can Proton do better than them ?

 

In Malaysia, Perodua can survive because they are 51% owned by Daihatsu of Japan which in turn is in the Toyota stable. Perodua benefits from Daihatsu and Toyota's technology support as well. Toyota is the world's No. 1 car manufacturer.

Now here is the latest miracle car from Germany, the 2015  VW GTE Golf.

New VW Golf GTE is the GTI of Plug-in Hybrids

• New GTE that was unwrapped at the Geneva Motor Show.
• Pairs a (148hp) 1.4-liter four-cylinder direct-injection petrol engine to a 102PS (101hp) synchronous electric motor.
• Two powerplants twisting out a combined out of 204PS (201hp) and 350Nm of torque
• 0-100km/h (62mph) acceleration time of 7.6 seconds and a top speed of 222 km/h (138mph)
• Golf GTE average fuel consumption of 1.5 l/100 km (156.8 mpg US or 188.3 mpg UK) with CO2 emissions of just 35g/km

156 miles per gallon (US)  !!  188 miles per gallon (UK) !! That is insane.

The Mercedes Benz E300 (?) which sells here for RM300,000 already goes 2000 km on one full tank. That means for normal driving you need only fill up your tank about once a month !! A full sized Mercedes Benz !!

These fantastic developments in automotive technology are due to first class universities, first class education systems, first class research, first class engineering and world class money spending. 

It is very, very expensive to develop these new technologies. Despite that, their technology development is accelerating by leaps and bounds.

So can Proton ever catch up at all with all this new technology? 

Forget about 50 miles per gallon.  Can Proton create a car that can even give 40 miles per gallon?  I dont think so.

Proton can rebadge a 2005 Honda but I doubt Proton will be allowed to rebadge a 2015 VW GTE. Not until 2050 at least. 

By the time Proton gets to 40 miles per gallon, the others would have reached 200 miles per gallon. 

So for how much longer are we going to torture the poor Malaysian people with the highest car prices in the world, cars with basic technology, higher fuel consumption and less safety and other features? 

So many people die or suffer injuries when they get involved in motor accidents, even minor accidents. 

Why? Too many people crammed inside one vehicle. 

Why? Because cars are too expensive, people cannot afford to buy bigger and safer cars.

Why? Because we have such high car prices in the world. 

Why? Because we have strange auto policies that are totally divorced from the market.

Why? I really dont know.

Lets break open the auto industry. Cars are now almost absolute necessities. They are not luxuries at all. 

Remove all (yes all) taxes and duties on cars.  Let the economy import whatever vehicles it wants to. 

It will save peoples' lives from car crashes. 

It will lower the cost of living. 

Peoples' disposable incomes will shoot up instantly because cheaper cars will mean they dont have to pay 1/3 of their salaries for car instalments.  

WE WILL BECOME A HIGH INCOME NATION.