Malaysian automotive industry analyst Hezeri Samsuri said Proton should focus on exports to continue growing as a company, suggesting a need to venture out of Malaysia’s relatively small market to boost profits.
On May 6, Proton said it sold 67,298 cars globally in the first four months of 2026, while increasing its market share in Malaysia to 26.4 per cent of total industry volume.
But Proton is second behind fellow national automaker Perodua, which maintains the biggest market share in Malaysia at 43.9 per cent as of end-2025, based on internal estimates.
“Proton has to focus more on aftersales (service) and branding for overseas markets. They are using Geely’s products, which are already of global standards,” Hezeri told CNA.
However, he cautioned that mature markets like the UK and Australia are flooded with new Chinese automotive brands offering “better and more affordable” products.
“Proton on its own can never go into those markets, but if Geely wants to use Proton there, it would be great because Proton has been there before and is still known as a product that provides vehicles with good suspension,” he added.
ENTHUSIASTS WANT TO SEE PROTON COMEBACK
Coupland, the Proton collector in the UK, said the brand’s presence there is kept alive by “a few hardcore fans”.
Some use performance models like the Satria in drag races or time trials, while others take less valuable models to “destruction derbies”, where drivers race and crash older vehicles on oval dirt or tarmac racks.
“And then there’s me,” Coupland said, adding that he does not know many other Proton collectors in the UK.
He recently became administrator of the Proton owners’ club UK Facebook group, which has just under 10,000 members.
“What I see from the Malaysian community that watches my videos … is that a lot of the comments are, ‘Oh, Proton sold out to the Chinese. It’s not the ethos of Proton anymore; it’s all Geely rubbish’,” he said.
“I personally would like Proton to come back to the UK with the ethos that they had, in that ‘we’re making our own national car’.”