At the grand opening of Proton’s first 4S centre in Malaysia, the national carmaker’s Chief Executive Officer, Dr Li Chunrong disclosed to the media that the new SUV will be launching sometime in September or October this year!
According to Dr Li, the initial fleet of the yet-to-be-named Proton SUV will be fully imported from China as per the Government’s requirement before they begin local assembly in early 2019. This is common practice even for premium brands like Mercedes-Benz Malaysia and Volvo Car Malaysia where initial batches of vehicles are offered in CBU form.
Vice President of Group Engineering at Geely, Yang Jun, also ensured that Proton and Geely’s aim is to offer all the high-tech features on the right-hand drive (RHD) Proton SUV to meet market expectations. He even said that localised features that are not available anywhere else are also among the cards.
Yang also stressed that this is not a mere rebadging exercise as a joint development between over 100 Geely and Proton engineers have been ongoing for the past 18 months – since the debut of the Geely Boyue in China.
The new SUV is also said to feature design tweaks as compared to the Boyue but the CBU units will feature minor changes while the CKD units will feature more substantial design input for both exterior and interior from Proton’s head of design, Azlan Othman.
Dr Li promised that the first new Proton SUV will be presented to the public earliest in July while marketing campaigns will commence right after in August.
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Geely Boyue 1.8 TGDi Preview in Malaysia
