Proton Holdings Berhad was created in 1983, tasked with creating a national motor vehicle for Malayasia. The Prime Minister at the time, Dato Seri Mahathir Mohamad, conceived the original idea. In 1985, the first Proton and first domestically produced motorcar in Malaysia was launched; the Proton Saga or MPI in the United Kingdom. It has stood the test of time and is still for sale today. In Tanjung Malim, located just north of Kuala Lumpur, an assembly plant with state of the art equipment was constructed in 2005 in an area now known as Proton City. The site is a 500 hectare development containing the plant, housing for employees, commercial property and a University. 

 

The Proton GEN-2, Proton Saga and Proton Satria Neo are the three most recent Proton models and are all produced at this plant.

 

Today, Proton employs a workforce of over 6000 people in total and is growing due to the fact that the solid foundation of Proton Holdings Berhad during creation in 1983 has kept Malaysia’s car manufacturing industry developing at a rapid rate. 

 

The year 1996 brought a major change for Proton in terms of increased and upgraded engineering abilities when they acquired a share in the Lotus Group International. This increased in 2003 to a 100% stake in the Lotus Group International. Proton’s new car model development has involved the staff at lotus closely, and Lotus engineers are based permanently at Proton’s centre for design and development in Malaysia.

 

Since 1983, Proton has had many achievements such as being listed on the Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange and reaching the milestone of being sold in more than 50 countries worldwide including the UK, Australia, Singapore and the Far East.