Motorsport & Industry News: Sepang International Circuit and TOC Automotive College Team Up to Promote & Develop Local Motorsport Talents

TOC Automotive College has announced that they will be collaborating with Sepang International Circuit (SIC) to develop SIC as the Motorsports Hub of Asia. This partnership will aim to nurture and grow our local motorsport talents and also engineers so that we have individuals which are competitive globally.

PROTON LAUNCHES THE PROTON IRIZ HATCHBACK IN INDONESIA

PT PROTON Edar Indonesia, the official distributors of Proton cars in Indonesia had recently  launched Proton Iriz hatchback at FX Sudirman Mall, Senayan. Two variants are made available to the Indonesian market, 1.3L MT Standard and 1.3L CVT Standard, priced at IDR175,250,000 an IDR185,283,000, respectively. The cars will sold in 7 colours, Cotton White, Midnight Black, Sterling Silver, Atlantic Blue, Graphite Grey, Citrus Green and Fire Red.

Volkswagen Group announces relocation of their regional after sales center to Johor - Operational by 2018

This bit of good news comes from Volkswagen Group directly. They group is moving their Regional After Sales center for the Asia Pacific region to Malaysia! This means faster spares and faster spares means better after sales services.

PROTON PERSONA PREMIUM CVT & PROTON PERDANA 2.4 BAG SOME AWARDS AT THE FIRST EVER CARSIFU AWARDS

Recently,  PROTON, the national car company managed to bag a couple of awards at the first ever Carsifu Editor's Choice Awards 2016. The very recently launched All-New, Persona Premium CVT (the mid-specced car)  had won Best Compact Car and the also freshly launched All-New Proton Perdana 2.4 won Best Local Design of the Year at the inaugural CarSifu Editors’ Choice Awards 2016. Congratulations to Proton cars is in order.

ASEAN NCAP releases upcoming all-new Proton Saga crash test results - Do note that the car isn't launched yet!

Spy photo of the Proton Saga...put on the web a couple of months ago and now viraled everywhere!

ASEAN NCAP must be really excited. At the ASEAN Automobile Safety Forum, AASF, in Phnom Penh, ASEAN NCAP has released its latest test result for the 3rd Quarter of 2016 for the upcoming 3rd generation new Proton Saga (which was wrongly stated in the press release below as the 2nd generation Saga). Proton will be launching this new A segment sedan sometime very soon (by next month at the latest) and in the test, the all-new Proton Saga scored 13.33 out of 16.00 points in the Adult Occupant Protection (AOP) category, which placed the model in the range of a 4-Star rating. 

INDUSTRY NEWS: 11th Batch of Apprentices Graduate from the Mercedes Benz Apprentice Training Centre's Automotive Mechatronic training programme

Mercedes-Benz Malaysia recently celebrated the graduation of the 11th batch of the Apprentice Training Centre (ATC)‘s Automotive Mechatronic training programme. Following three years of training, the ATC graduates are now qualified to provide world-class after sales services for Mercedes-Benz valued customers, and will be assigned to Mercedes-Benz Malaysia’s nationwide dealer network.

INDUSTRY NEWS: APOLLO Tyres now have an official presence in Malaysia

(Standing from L-R) Mr. Satish Sharma, President, Asia Pacific, Middle East & Africa (APMEA), Apollo Tyres and Mr. Shubhro Ghosh, Group Head - ASEAN, Middle East & Africa, Apollo Tyres

(front middle) Mr. Victor Siew, Divisional Head - Malaysia, Apollo Tyres

Apollo Tyres have officially set up shop in Malaysia. The tyre maker, Apollo Tyres Ltd is an international tyre manufacturer with manufacturing units in India and the Netherlands where it is more famous for the Vredestein brand. The company markets its products under its two global brands – Apollo and Vredestein. Apollo would be known to those who have bought the Volkswagen Polo 1.6 hatch and sedan (now Vento). Most of the Polo 1.6's had Apollo tyres fitted on them. This is because we basically received our CKD kits from Volkswagen's plants in India. 

INDUSTRY NEWS: MY AUTO FEST 2016 nets about RM20 million worth of bookings.

 The recent My Auto Fest 2016 which was held over the weekend of 20th to the 22nd May 2016 was quite a success according to its organisers, the Malaysian Automotive Association. The sales driven auto show actually netted about RM20 million worth of bookings which I hope translates into actual sales after this. It was also the platform for various car manufacturers to preview their products. 

News: Proton Edar gets a new CEO

This is a straightforward piece of news. Mr Rohime Shafie is now the new Chief Executive Officer of Proton Edar (the sales arm of Proton Cars) replacing Mr Norzahid Mohd Zahudi who had tendered his resignation. 

Let's see what comes next now that the change of management has taken place.