Proton X50 and X70 launched in South Africa
The Saga will be the next to Proton model to be launched in South Africa
After a ten-year hiatus, Proton officially returned to South Africa last week.
To make the occasion even more special, Proton, through its official distributor in South Africa Combined Motor Holdings (CMH) officially launched the Proton X70 and X50 SUVs in the country.
While both the X50 and X70 will be available as CBU models to customers in South Africa, Proton said that it will be launching the Saga there either later in the year or in the beginning of 2023.
Speaking during the launch Jebb McIntosh, Chief Executive Officer of CMH said, “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.”
“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.
Growth in export volume vital to Proton’s expansion plans Export sales remain a vital part of it’s business plan.
While the company continues to reclaim market share in Malaysia’s automotive market, it needs to exploit the latent potential in international markets to make its push towards becoming a leading automotive brand in the region.
For 2022, export sales as at the end of August stand at 4,040, an increase of 33.9% over the total number of sales for 2021.
With the addition of South Africa to the list of export markets the company is hopeful of ending the year with an even bigger percentage in growth.
“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.
