First post for 2024! Volkswagen Passenger Cars Malaysia (VPCM) have introduced an updated Golf GTI, equipped with Harman Kardon audio system and a Head-up Display feature. So the Golf GTI will now retail at RM252,990. A little premium over the previous year's variant of course. You have to pay for the good stuff you know.
According to Volvo Cars, thousands of containers of production material for Volvo Cars factories are carried across the world’s oceans on container ships. Like most manufacturers do as it is the cheapest way of getting bulk items from one end to another. However, from now, the container ships used by Volvo Cars are made with renewable fuel instead of traditional fossil fuel. Volvo Cars are the first to announce such a move. The Swedish company will achieve an immediate reduction in fossil CO2 emissions from intercontinental ocean freight by an estimated 55,000 tonnes over a year. Thus, technically saving many manatees, dolphins and polar bears in a single swoop.
Over the weekend, Hino Motors Sales (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd (Hino Malaysia), held their 9th annual Hino Total Support (TS) Contest. The competition event took place over at their Petaling Jaya headquarters and had a participation of 95 skilled contestants coming from 15 Hino authorized dealers’ companies throughout Malaysia. As Hino celebrates the contest's robust participation, it highlights their commitment to achieving excellence and the contestant's competitive spirit.
Quite interesting. I have been attending the contest almost every year over the past few years and it is actually nice watching the camaraderie between the Hino teams and those who attended. It is also good that these contests actually help skill building for Hino personnel and it will pass on benefits to Hino customers.
PROTON has finally launched the S70 sedan earlier this evening. If you've been following the blog you would have known that I have already driven Proton's newest C segment sedan and you can view all four parts of my initial drive over here in the previous article covering that preview drive. Now, Proton has finally revealed the prices for the four variants that will be offered here and I must say that the packages at launch as well as the prices are actually very tempting.
Earlier today (the 23rd of November 2023), Aveta Malaysia Sdn Bhd, the manufacturer, assembler and distributor of Aveta motorcycles, launched the Aveta Ranger Max Explorer, the first adventure cub in Malaysia. The small underbone type, or here, popularly known as a kapchai, or cub has been engineered for both on-road and off-road riding, making this the smallest, dare I say it, dual purpose adventure styled bike sold in Malaysia.
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Hyundai Motor Company launched and flagged off the "Far with Zero Worries" IONIQ 5 ASEAN Tour, which covers a 2,751-kilometer route across Southeast Asia. The Flag Off Ceremony took place at the Hyundai Motor Group Innovation Center Singapore (HMGICS) yesterday, and is planned to finish at the Royal Palace in Ho Chi Minh City,Vietnam on November 30th. Today, the convoy has flagged off from Hyundai Sime Darby Motor's headquarters in Ara Damansara (above) on their way up north towards Vietnam.
Multi-brand premium automotive group, SISMA Auto, has essentially doubled down on investing in the Volvo Car marque by officially opening their new flagship Volvo 3S centre at Sungai Besi, in Kuala Lumpur. The brand new from the ground-up 3S (Sales, Service & Spares) Centre was built at an investment cost of around RM30million shows a whole lot of commitment to the premium car maker.
Today, the 21st November 2023 marks the official launch and price announcement of the smart #1 SUV/Crossover here in Malaysia. This comes after many days of teasers, previews and so on. The brand's first offering was launched by Yang Mulia Tengku Datuk Seri Utama Zafrul Tengku Abdul Aziz, Minister of Investment, Trade, and Industry at an event attended by Tan Sri Syed Faisal Albar, Chairman of PROTON, YBhg. Dato' Hairil Yahri Yaacob, Secretary General of MITI, Tong Xiangbei, Global CEO of smart Automobile, Dr. Li Chunrong, Chief Executive Officer of PROTON, En Roslan Abdullah, Deputy Chief Executive Officer of PROTON, and Mr. Zhang Qiang, Chief Executive Officer of PRO-NET as well as many other guests.
Mercedes-Benz Malaysia earlier today launched the all-new 2023 Mercedes-Benz GLC 300 4MATIC Coupé together with the facelifted Mercedes-AMG GLE 53 4MATIC+ Coupé (which you can find details HERE). This is the sportier looking variant of the very recently launched, all-new GLC SUV. With its fastback rear styling, it sacrifices some bootspace for a more youthful, performance inspired look overall. The Retail Price* with 10% Sales Tax RM 469,888 On the road without Insurance
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Last weekend, BMW Malaysia launched the All-Electric BMW 5 Series sports sedan, the i5 eDrive40 M Sport at the Premium Auto Care Expo (PACE) 2023. This First-Ever All-Electric BMW i5 eDrive40 M Sport is an addition to the very popular BMW 5 Series range of performance sedans, introducing a new era of driving excellence to the series. It is said to offer unparalleled luxury, but also redefines the cutting-edge innovation and design language within the BMW i fleet as well as being part of the 5 series range of vehicles, BMW Malaysia has announced that the sports sedan will cost RM 419,800.00
The 2023 BMW i5 eDrive40 M Sport full electric sports sedan makes 250kW / 340hp and has a published electric range of up to 582 kilometers (WLTP). The electrical prowess can be further amplified by the innovative Max Range function, which enhances efficiency by 25 percent through comfort function deactivation and adjustments to the power and speed limitations (i,e useful programming to ensure drivetrain efficiency). Adding to its thrilling performance, the i5 eDrive40 M Sport harnesses a peak torque of 430Nm in Sport Boost, which allows this EV to do 0 to 100 km/h in a 6.0 seconds and hit a top speed of 193km/h (limited by the usual single speed EV transmission that most of these sort of cars have.
On 31st October 2023, PROTON officially unveiled its upcoming model, the Proton S70, at a line-off ceremony presided over by the Secretary General of the Ministry of Investment, Trade, and Industry, (MITI), Dato’ Hairil Yahri Yaacob. Rolling off the company’s Tanjong Malim production line, the Proton S70 is the first all-new addition to its sedan line-up since the launch of the Proton Persona in August2016.
Recently, the Mercedes-Benz Production Plant in Pekan is celebrated another milestone of production with the rolling out its 100,000th Mercedes-Benz passenger car. This historical milestone underlines Mercedes-Benz Malaysia’s commitment and dedication to manufacturing excellence and innovation in the luxury automotive industry, or in a much broader scale, the Malaysian automotive industry, as a premium brand has been assembling so many vehicles in the country to date.
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PROTON has now confirmed the price for the limited to 200 packages only R3 20th Anniversary Edition accessories package for the Proton X50 at the X50 Carnival at the Proton Centre of Excellence today. This announcement basically took awhile. It comes following its unveiling at the MARii Autoshow 2023 in May of this year. I wonder why it took Proton some many months to get this into production.
Perodua has announced that they have achieved a 28.3% increase in sales for the third quarter of this year. This amounts to 88,537 units compared to 69,011 units in the same quarter of 2022 with production already going on an increase. The increase in registration was due to improvement in the manufacturing production efficiency, which saw 91,528 units made which equates to an increase of 21.7% compared with 75,196 units in the same quarter of 2022.
