Proton cars will cost more in 2016, no thanks to weakening Ringgit



Looks like we have another bad news to bring you, dear readers, this time coming from our homegrown automaker, Proton.

Apparently, due to the depreciating Ringgit, Proton has no choice but to increase the price for their models across the range. This move is to offset the cost of importing parts and materials, though the company hasn’t announced the revised list at press time.perdana-alamiproton (9)

Proton’s CEO Dato’ Abdul Harith Abdullah was quoted saying, “The weaker Ringgit affects the company’s operation cost and the entire eco-system chain from the vendors to us. Hence, we are evaluating our pricing structure and the percentage of the price increase will depend on the models.”

With Proton becoming the latest string of brands to announce price increase for next year, we can only wonder how much local content goes into the making of Proton cars. Proton Chairman, Tun Dr. Mahathir, once mentioned that there is about 90 percent locally manufactured parts found in Proton. So given that price increase to offset the remaining 10 percent (presumably the drivetrain) does raise a few uncertainties. Will the price increase be in the hundreds, or thousands? Will the local contents be impacted as well? Will Proton, in a worst case scenario, introduce variants cheaper than the SV trims to mitigate costing issues?2015-Proton-Saga-Plus-2

As of now, Proton is offering seven models to the Malaysian market, with the Saga Plus model being the most affordable pick with a starting price of RM33,243.40. Next year will see the introduction of the new Perdana model, with the Saga and Persona models both set to be succeeded soon.

If there’s one thing we can be certain about, is that the new Proton Perdana will surely cost more than they initially hoped. The better question now is, how much more?