Happy Birthday Proton X70

When Proton was on the brink of collapse, the Malaysian carmaker turned to Chinese automaker Geely for help. The result was the Proton X70, a rebadged Geely SUV that many thought would be the death of Proton.

Four years later, the Proton X70 is not only still around, it’s thriving. The X70 has become the best-selling C-segment SUV in Malaysia, selling 82,869 units since its launch in 2018.

At Proton’s darkest hour, it was suggested that a very little-known Chinese car company, Geely, should offer a relatively unproven SUV to help the national carmaker rebadge itself out of its troubles.

At this point in Proton’s life, rebadging has become a bad word, not least because the then chairman of DRB-Hicom, which owned Proton had promised to never rebadge again.

Thanks to severe financial constraints at the time there was no way Proton could develop its own SUV and the only way out was to rebadge a Geely product.

The market was skeptical that the idea would work, firstly it was a Chinese product, which is not particularly desirable among Malaysian, who still think that anything from there are not exactly reeking with quality.

Given their dire situation, Proton really had no choice, their earlier attempts to find a partner among other carmakers had failed miserably and Geely was the only one still showing any interest.

It must have been hell to be at Proton at the time, facing financial uncertainty, lacking any really desirable product for the market and how facing the prospect of rebadging an unknown product from an unknown company.

They had to make it work or it would be the end of Proton as the Government had made it clear that they are in no mood for another bailout.

Just as a perspective of how untested this product is in the open market, it didn’t even have a right-hand drive version. Proton had to develop that.

As the engineering work went on, the marketing department were also having twins, preparing market acceptance for a product that would have to venture into a price segment that Proton had never done well in.

Given the technology in the X70, the price would likely be above RM100,000 and buyers at this segment are far less forgiving than in the affordable segment, where choice is a luxury.

They took out all the stops and placed the product into everything from beauty pageants to television programmes and even staged a surprise appearance with former Prime Minister, Dr Mahathir driving it to an upmarket shopping centre in the heart of Kuala Lumpur.

It was only after the launch, when the public had a chance to see the product in person and experience driving the X70 that praise began flowing in.

Features like Hello Proton, and panoramic sunroof as well as adaptive cruise control became key selling points for the X70.

Competitors from more established brands knew then that the game had shifter, Proton was now offering specifications that they were not able to match and the X70 was offered at a much more competitive price

The X70’s greatest triumph is in bringing the proton badge above the RM100,000 price segment.

While Proton did have products just above the mark in the past, their sales numbers were never as high as the X70’s.

Now that the dust has settled and we are celebrating the fourth anniversary of the car that helped save Proton, the X70 seem to have taken a step back almost like an elder statesman who has proven a point.

The X70’s credentials are no longer in question and the successful launch of the revised version with a smaller, more economical 1,5-litre turbo engine showed that the model has it’s own strength in the market.