Proton has confirmed through its social media channels today that the X50, perhaps the most anticipated car of the year in Malaysia, has will hit the market on the 27th of October, with a virtual launch confirmed at 10:50 am next Tuesday.
Within two weeks since the Proton X50 opened for booking on Malaysia Day, the national carmaker has already received over 20,000 bookings for the compact SUV. It’s unclear what the numbers are at this moment, but the company says that booking numbers have “exceeded expectations”. Fair to say that “popular” is an understatement!
The Proton X50 will be offered in four variants – Standard, Executive, Premium, and Flagship. All variants feature a 1.5-litre turbocharged three-cylinder engine, though in two different configurations. The first three variants in the list are equipped with a port-fuel injected version of the mill, producing 150 hp and 226 Nm of torque.
The Flagship variant meanwhile gets direct injection on the three-pot engine, which bumps the output figure to 177 hp and 255 Nm. Both engine options will be paired to a seven-speed dual-clutch transmission – the same used on the locally-assembled Proton X70, but with model-specific tuning.
We had the opportunity for a quick taster of the Proton X50 Flagship’s performance at the Sepang International Circuit earlier this month, where it was even pitted against the BMW X1 sDrive18i for a “drag race”. Be sure to check out the video here!
In terms of kit, unsurprisingly the Flagship variant gets most of the goodies, including the level 2 autonomous driving advanced driver assistance features. But if you can live without that, the Executive variant gets 6 airbags, while the Premium adds on a 360-degree around view camera and tyre pressure monitoring system.
Either way, the X50 has already received a five-star rating from ASEAN NCAP, and that includes the base X50 1.6T Standard, which comes with four airbags. For the full specifications breakdown, take a look at our previous write-up here. But for now, any guesses on the prices? No rewards for the right guesses, but at least you’ll have the bragging rights!
