These ministers visit Zeekr as Malaysia moves to become a New Energy Hub
Recently, some of our ministers including our Prime Minister had visited China and during that visit, a few of these ministers also ended up visiting the Zeekr as Malaysia is working towards becoming a new energy hub since our first national car brand has already begun its electrification journey too.
Yes, you read that right, Malaysia is working on becoming a new energy hub and it is about time. Thailand and Indonesia specifically are already decades ahead of us in this regard which puts Malaysia very far behind in ASEAN and now we can finally catch up and what company better to help us with that than Zeekr.
Zeekr is an electric vehicle (EV) focused subsidiary of the already well known brand, Geely, which is a strategic partner with our own local car brand, Proton and also is related to other car brands such as Volvo. The brand will, no doubt, offer much insight for us to also become a new energy hub.
Speaking about their visit to Zeekr, one of our ministers commented, “During dinner last night, I was placed between H.E. Li Qiang, Premier of China, and HE Zhen Shanjie, Chairman of the National Development & Reform Commission. I was told that I was going to visit the Geely factory today.”
“So, we also talk about the strategic relationship between Geely (China) and PROTON, which has already borne fruit because since the collaboration began in 2017, PROTON is now back in profit.” He added.
“Earlier this morning I left for Ningbo City, China to visit the factory and meet with the parties at Geely Zeekr Hangzhou Bay Smart Plant. Thanks to DRB-Hicom and Proton Cars for organizing a visit that gave me the opportunity to learn many new things about the capacity of China’s automotive technology.”
“Geely Zeekr is a new electric vehicle brand manufactured by China’s renowned car manufacturer Geely, in April 2021. Among its models, the Zeekr 001, has impressive acceleration performance, with a 0-100 km/h acceleration time of just under 3 seconds! I was able to test drive their EV, its whip is really powerful.” Another minister stated.
Our ministers concluded with, “Geely has shown collaborative interest in using new EV technology for PROTON and ecosystem in Malaysia. I am confident with this synergy, the development of the electric vehicle industry in Malaysia will be able to improve while achieving our country’s zero carbon aspiration.”
Hopefully, now with the help of Zeekr, we will see the fruits of Proton’s EV research and if we are lucky, we will finally have a sub RM100,000 EV being sold in Malaysia and with a Proton badge too. When do you guys think we will see this happen or will it even happen at all?
