Proton is officially back in South Africa with Combined Motor Holdings.
The Proton brand once had a foot in loads of different markets before slowly withdrawing from almost every one. Now with Geely-engineered products and an improvement management structure, the company is becoming global once again. They recently re-entered the South African market with Combined Motor Holdings (CMH) as their official distributors. This is ten years after Proton exited South Africa.
CMH will begin selling the Proton X50 and Proton X70 immediately, with launches of both models coinciding with the brands reintroduction to the country. Later on, CMH will introduce the Proton Saga, but this will only happen later in 2022 or early in 2023. All models will be fully-imported from Malaysia and no CKD operations are planned.
What is in the pipeline for CMH is dealer expansion. The company is looking to grow to 25 dealers in half a year. The first 17 of these have already been put through sales and technical training. They’ve also got a full range of replacement parts in stock at their distribution centre.
Here’s the press release with more.
PRESS RELEASE
Ten years after it exited the market, national car maker PROTON is now officially back in South Africa. The relaunch of the brand occurred at an event hosted by Combined Motor Holdings (CMH), Proton’s official distributor, that coincided with the local launch of the Proton X70 and Proton X50. Both models are now available as CBU models to customers in the Rainbow Nation and will be joined by the Proton Saga later in the year or the beginning of 2023.
Growth in export volume vital to PROTON’s expansion plans
Export sales remain a vital part of PROTON’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.
