After first taking a look at the Geely and Geometry brands and then Lynk & Co, this third feature in a five part series examining the divisions of ZGH turns the focus to Proton and Lotus.
Proton
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By GlobalDataThe Iriz, a small five-door hatchback, was revealed in Malaysia in September 2014. Recently given a mild makeover it should have a successor in 2021 or 2022. The PCC (Proton Compact Car) platform only dates to 2014 so the replacement could be based on an updated version of this low-cost architecture.
The BH series Persona is a small sedan which is sold mainly in Malaysia. It can be thought of as the four-door equivalent of the Iriz.
The most recent news for the Persona was the announcement of a facelifted model in March. The replacement is due in 2023.
The Saga is another sedan. This 4.3m long model has been on sale in Malaysia since September 2016. As well as being manufactured there, Proton announced in March that the Saga would be assembled at a plant in Karachi by year-end. Alhaj Automotive, the Proton distributor in Pakistan, is also the assembler. The next news after this happens should be a facelift in 2021. The replacement model probably won’t appear until 2024-2026. The platform should be CMA2, a yet to be announced Geely-Volvo architecture.
Geely’s Jia Ji, an MPV, will also become a Proton, Geely’s president An Conghui told journalists in March at the model’s media preview in Zhuhai. No release date was revealed, nor did he state whether this right-hand drive model would be imported or instead locally built or assembled.
The Jia Ji is 4,706mm long and is available with five, six or seven seats. There are petrol and petrol-electric PHEV powertrains. Proton might want to use a fresh model name but if not, Exora is well known as that has been the brand’s entry in this segment for more than a decade.
Proton’s first SUV is called X70. Apart from its RHD format, a new grille and the badges, this is the same vehicle as the Chinese market’s Geely Emgrand Bo Yue (also known as Boyue). Available since the start of the year as an import, the 4.5m long X70 is due to enter production at Proton’s Tanjung Malim plant in the Malaysian state of Perak soon. A facelift should take place in 2022 with a replacement due in 2025.
The X50 (provisional model name) should be added to Proton’s model line-up later in 2019. This 4.3m long SUV would be Geely’s Bin Yui in right-hand drive form with new grille and badges.
Lotus
A successor for the Elise is expected to be revealed within the next six to twelve months and in production during the fourth quarter of 2020. The current car has been around since 1996. The new model will be slightly larger and annual production of several thousand cars is the target. This will also be the first car for a next generation Lotus platform.
A replacement for the Exige might still be one of the vehicles which Lotus’ former parent firm said it hoped to build in China, as well as in England. The new car is due to be released in 2021, a few months after the arrival of the Elise, with which it will share a platform.
A rebodying of the Lynk 01 and Volvo XC40 was said to be planned as a way of getting a Macan-sized SUV onto the Chinese market as soon as possible. These plans might have changed as the company’s former CEO Jean-Marc Gales started in March 2018 that an SUV was some four years away. He also stated that there could be two SUVs – one the size of the Porsche Macan and the other to be as long as the Cayenne.
The SUVs would logically be based on Volvo and Geely architectures, so CMA and SPA (or SPA2). Production would most likely be in China. The larger of the two might be manufactured at a plant which Geely is having built in Wuhan. This factory, which has initial annual capacity of 150,000 vehicles a year, is scheduled to become operational in late 2021.
An electric hypercar, to be called Evija (‘ev-eye-a’), is being co-developed by Lotus and Williams Advanced Engineering. Expected to be powered by two motors, this model is due on sale towards the end of 2021. Pricing should be sky-high, with a figure of GBP2m having been suggested.
Lotus announced the project’s name at the Shanghai motor show in April and issued one blurry image to the media, stating that “A maximum of 130 cars” would be built. The Evija will be revealed at an event in London on 16 July.
Reports for many other manufacturers’ future models are grouped in the OEM product strategy summaries section of just-auto.com.
Future product program intelligence
More detail on past, current and forthcoming models can be found in PLDB, the future vehicles database which is part of QUBE. That include various other existing and forthcoming Proton and Lotus models.
The next brand to be covered within the ZGH (Zhejiang Geely Holding Group) series will be Volvo Cars, to be followed by Polestar.
