Michael Chew, Senior Manager, Product Marketing of PROTON introducing the X50 & X70
After a 10 year absence, PROTON has now returned to South Africa with the official launch of the Proton X50 and X70 SUVs. The brand relaunch was hosted by Combined Motor Holdings (CMH), Proton’s official distributor in South Africa.
Both models are currently available as fully imported models to South Africa, which Proton had shipped out in June. The Saga (the last model to be sold there) is scheduled to join the SUV duo either by the end of this year or in early 2023. “When the Proton brand became available, CMH jumped at the opportunity for several reasons, but mostly because we saw a gap in the market for a quality SUV within an affordable price bracket. There are many luxury brands selling SUVs in South Africa, but most are simply unaffordable to the average car buyer here,” said Jebb McIntosh, Chief Executive Officer of CMH. CMH started in 1976 after a merger of several dealerships and is listed in the Johannesburg Stock Exchange. The group represents multiple automotive brands and is involved in retail, distribution, hire, and financial services.“Our plan is to have 25 dealers within six months, the first 17 of which have already undergone sales and technical training. A full range of replacement parts are also already in stock in our distribution centre so our customers can buy the vehicles with confidence,” he added.
PROTON continues to plan for export market expansion as it remains a vital part of its business plan. While the company continues to reclaim market share in Malaysia’s automotive market, it needs to exploit the potential in international markets to make its push towards becoming a leading automotive brand in the region.
For the first 8 months of 2022, it recorded export sales 4,040 vehicles, an increase of 33.9% over the total sales for 2021. With the addition of South Africa to the export list, PROTON is expecting further growth in this segment.
“PROTON is aggressively pursuing export sales as we believe it is one of the pillars to growing our overall volumes. There is a lot of potential for growth in our international markets, not just for the Proton brand but for the local automotive industry too so we want to establish a firm foothold while these markets are still accessible. Our aim is to achieve 6,000 export sales this year and while we remain confident of achieving our goal, there is a lot of work ahead of us to identify suitable partners to gain entry to more countries to achieve bigger goals in the future,” said Roslan Abdullah, Deputy Chief Executive Officer, PROTON.
Keyword: PROTON Returns To South Africa With Launch Of X50 And X70 SUVs