Proton, a Malaysian car company, has said that it plans to expand their sales globally and become a big player in the international car market. Proton was bought by DRB-Hicom in 2012. They will release their plans for the next five years in March 2013, which will aim at producing many quality products and cars that can be sold all over the world, which will match international standards. Proton currently is a major player in home market, Malaysia, where the competition is getting tougher from other car makers.
Proton sells their cars currently in 55 countries like the UK, some countries in Europe, Australia, as well as South East Asian countries. It is famous for making basic, low cost cars. But now they will step up their game to produce cars that can compete with global car manufacturers with bigger cars and expand into many new markets. Proton will go through many improvements so that they can increase their sales and share in the market as well as increase income streams and profits.
Proton manufactures 1,50,000 cars currently every year. In the next five years, they plan to increase their production to 5,00,000 units. They plan to bump up the number of cars exported to international markets, which currently stands at a mere 20,000 cars per year. The main market which will be targeted will be Australia, where there is a high scope for expansion followed by Thailand where they will introduce their car – the Exora MPV. Later in their plan is to expand into Indonesia. Proton owns Lotus, which gives them access to quite a lot of technology and engineering expertise.
