Exora to boost Proton sales in Asean

Proton Holdings Bhd managing director Datuk Syed Zainal Abidin Syed Mohamad Tahir believes the Exora multi-purpose vehicle (MPV) will help improve sales in markets where it is already present, especially Asean.

“We want to focus on selling cars within the Asean region and we are trying to compress the introduction period of our vehicles in these markets,” he said at the 17th Indonesia International Motor Show in Jakarta recently.

Syed Zainal said it used to take up to two years to introduce new cars into other countries. The Exora, which was launched on April 15, made its debut in Indonesia and Singapore last week and the week before respectively.

Proton plans to launch the MPV in Thailand by December. Plans to introduce the Exora in the Philippines and Vietnam were currently on hold because the two countries were not part of Common Effective Preferential Tariff (CEPT) scheme, said Syed Zainal

We can launch in the Philippines and Vietnam today if we want but we want to wait for them to subscribe to CEPT. If we sell now, our products may not be competitive because of the tax structure,” he said.

Syed Zainal said Proton may introduce the Exora in China and Iran next year.

To date, the national car maker has a presence in 24 markets, including New Zealand, Australia, Egypt, China, Iran and Britain.

Syed Zainal said Proton was studying the possibility of introducing the MPV in Britain.

“Britain has strict regulations. Exora meets the Euro 4 standard but Europe is already implementing Euro 5,” he said. The standard defines the acceptable limits for exhaust emissions of vehicles.

“We need to improve on the Exora if we want to penetrate the British market, which is also contracting. We are still studying the viability of penetrating the market.”

In Indonesia, the MPV segment makes up about 60% of the total automotive market. Proton has been present in the country since March 2007 and has been selling six models since, including the Saga, Savvy, GEN.2 and Waja.

Given that Proton’s earlier models could only tap about 40% of Indonesia’s total automotive market, Syed Zainal is optimistic that the Exora would offer more growth opportunities to the national carmaker.

Proton currently commands a 3.4% share of the Indonesian automotive market. Syed Zainal said the company had not set a target market share.

“We want to be focused on having sustainable growth. I think that is more important. When you are obsessed with targets you tend to lose sight of what you want to achieve in the long term.

“To grow steadily, we must continue to expand our network, improve our product and branding initiatives. So far, we have made improvements, but there is still a lot of work to be done,” he said