Proton intends to finance used car dealers
SouthEast Asia’s largest small and medium enterprises (SME) digital financing platform, Funding Societies is collaborating with Malaysia’s first national car brand, Proton to provide them with credit facilities to finance the purchase of cars for floor stocking.
What I want to know is why local banks and financing houses are not providing Proton with enough funding? Naturally the Proton haters will immediately cite the extravagant loans the company took for countless reasons including R&D for electric vehicles (EVs) and that is a fair criticism.
However, Proton is headed in the right direction with PRO-NET and is at least in the process of creating their own EVs. Plus, Malaysia lacks the proper infrastructure to truly go electric at the moment so Proton is definitely better off sticking to internal combustion engine (ICE) cars for now.
Country Head of Funding Societies Malaysia, Chai Kien Poon, said “Demand for personal vehicles saw an increase since the second half of 2020. Underlying this growth are concerns over shared transportation (Covid-19 health crisis) and accommodative government policies during the pandemic.”
“With Funding Societies’ revolving credit facility, PROTON’s dealers can tap into that growth by increasing their inventory for sale across by increasing their floor stocking inventory of used cars.” He added.
Wan Ahmad Fadzli Wan Mustafa, General Manager, Proton Edar also stated, “With PROTON’s sales volume increase over the past few years, we have seen an increase of trade-in or trade-up transactions. Through the dealer financing service provided by Funding Societies, our dealers can finance the purchase of floor stocks to enable the trade-in transaction.”
Moreover, Proton introduced its Used Car Management (UCM) unit in 2019 to set operating procedures as well as training for used car inspectors to manage transactions and ensure services provided adhere to the brand’s expectations. Proton currently has 35 outlets retailing Proton Certified Pre-Owned (PCPO) vehicles in Malaysia.
Vehicles sold under PCPO also undergo a 201-point inspection and are guaranteed to be free from flood and major accident damage. Customers who purchase these cars can also enjoy a 1-year extended warranty which covers the engine and transmission and a one-time free basic service after 6 months from the registration date.
This is all clearly beneficial so why aren’t local banks helping Proton with funding? This is, after all, our nation’s first National Car brand and helped the nation progress in its prime, so they at least deserve a fighting chance but it is mostly foreign brands and companies helping Proton. Kudos to Funding Societies for supporting local.
