PROTON Holdings Bhd is confident its newly-launched compact car Proton Iriz will revive its flagging fortunes and boost overall sales to 160,000 units this year.
Chairman Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said Iriz will help the national car manufacturer capture a larger share of the local automotive market with its competitive prices and innovative features.
Proton, which is owned by DRB-HICOM Bhd, posted a weaker market share of 17.2 per cent in June, while its market share for the January-June period stood at 18.9 per cent.
The carmaker’s sales slipped 0.9 per cent month-on-month and 6.9 per cent year-on-year to only 10,060 units in June.
Analysts have said that Proton needs to sell at least 150,000 cars annually to show a profit.
“The Iriz is competing in the B-segment. I think its contribution to Proton’s earnings will be quite substantial,” Dr Mahathir said at the launch, here, yesterday.
Also present at the event were Transport Minister Datuk Seri Liow Tiong Lai, Deputy International Trade and Industry Minister Datuk Hamim Samuri and Proton chief executive officer Datuk Abdul Harith Abdullah.
He said Iriz will contribute much towards Proton’s sales target of 160,000 units this year.
“Iriz’s sales look promising because even before the launch there were already bookings for 17,000 units, and we can expect more orders after the launch,” Dr Mahathir said.
Dr Mahathir said Proton is heading in the right direction with the production of its new compact car meeting the global standards and regulations.
The Iriz’s on-the-road price starts at RM42,438 for 1.3 litre variant and RM53,438 for the 1.6 litre variant.
It is available in seven colours: Fire Red, Atlantic Blue, Genetic Silver, Proton White, Tranquility Black, Citrus Green and Silver Moon Dust. which is also equipped with a four-cylinder VVT engine built to the Euro-4 standard to make it both fuel-efficient and cost-effective.