Sunday November 28, 2010
Govt to field-test Proton hybrid car first
SHAH ALAM: The mass production of a Proton hybrid vehicle will be decided after it has been tested through government use in Putrajaya and Cyberjaya next year. Proton managing director Datuk Syed Zainal Abidin Syed Mohamad Tahir said the company needed to get positive feedback from the Government before marketing the car on a large scale. He added that Proton would produce 50 to 200 units of the hybrid vehicle, and would start to deliver them in January.
The road ahead: Guests checking out the Proton hybrid car during a seminar in Cyberjaya on Thursday.
“If we go straight to mass production, we fear we might find problems. So let the Government use the hybrid and we’ll get feedback. “We hope we can make a decision to market them in a big way by the middle of next year,” he said yesterday at the family fiesta and Proton Innovation and Creation 2010 competition, which was attended by company chairman Datuk Seri Nadzmi Salleh at Shah Alam Stadium.
The price of the hybrid vehicle is expected to be 50% higher than that of an ordinary car, he said. But people could be encouraged to buy the hybrid with indirect incentives from the Government. It was the same in other countries, Syed Zainal said, where government incentives spurred people to buy a hybrid car. — Bernama
