Photo: Malaysian national carmaker Proton unveils the local-assembled X70 Sports Utility Vehicle (SUV), which was jointly developed with China's Geely, Dec. 13.
KUALA LUMPUR, Dec. 13 (Xinhua) -- Malaysian national carmaker Proton on Friday unveiled the local-assembled X70 Sports Utility Vehicle (SUV), which was jointly developed with China's Geely.
The vehicle will be put together at Proton's new 1.2 billion ringgit (290 million U.S. dollars) assembly plant in Tanjung Malim, said Proton chairman Syed Faisal Albar during a ceremony at the plant to mark the new milestone.
Syed Faisal singled out the X70 from among the manufacturer's product line as being instrumental in turning around the fortunes of the national carmaker, having sold over 26,000 units since being introduced to the Malaysian market a year ago.
"Customers are coming back to our showrooms, the sales figures for all the new models are far ahead against what we achieved last year and there is a renewed sense of enthusiasm permeating Proton's workforce," he said.
"We cannot deny, however, that the Proton X70 was the product that set us on our current path. It is a proud moment that we can now produce it here in Tanjung Malim and match the quality of the units that were imported from China with target to export to global markets as well," he added.
Geely acquired 49.9 percent of Proton from Malaysia's leading conglomerate DRB-HICOM that owned 100 percent of Proton in 2017. The X70 was the first product of the partnership and has been a hit in the Malaysian market after being launched in December last year.
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