Proton Saga or Proton's Saga more like it

Proton introduced their very first model called the Saga back in the mid 1980s. the very model stayed in production for about 20 years before the next model came out, and now the 3rd generation finally came out. Spanning 30 years Proton only introduced 3 generations of the Saga. Now I know why they call it the Saga because it like a movie or story saga where it goes on and on taking a decade at least to see a new model. In this modern day all car companies are shortening their model life cycles to keep their model line up fresh and exciting. Even Porsche who previously took 9 years to introduce a new model has been shortening its model life cycle because it knows that the more new models they introduce will lead to more sales.

Proton's R&D department is taking the motto of "Don't fix whats not broken" to the extreme or they are just plain lazy! The newer iterations of the Saga seems like a minor step forward. Some may argue that it is a bare basic car and what can you really expect? That can easily be answered by the closest rival from Perodua which continuously take bigger and bigger steps ahead of Proton. Cheap doesn't mean it has to be bad! Cheap can also be decent if you do it right. Perodua is fortunate that they can draw from the massive parts bin from Daihatsu Japan and Proton is left developing engines of their own. However since Proton is better that assembling cars rather than doing its own R&D I would think that it would make better sense for them to solely focus on rebadging cars. The Proton Wira, Waja and Perdana were fine examples from Mitsubishi and they were reliable and decent value for money. If you don't have the right capacity to do R&D, stick to what you know best... rebadging cars.

the new Saga claims to be better but it is still yet to be seen. Proton claims good initial sales but this can be seen only in 6 months time when the sales figures are published rather than claimed by Proton. Making claims about the sales figures to boost confidence is one thing but the actual sales figure will speak for itself.

I wouldn't judge too quickly but there is always a market in malaysia for entry level cars. The economy is not good now and cheaper cars will be more popular since those who can't afford Japanese or Korean brands will revert to buying local cars.

Charging stations in Malaysia

With the introduction of more plug-in hybrid cars in Malaysia it would make sense to build more charging stations. Up till now Malaysia only has a handful of charging stations for electric vehicles most of which were built by Nissan for the Nissan Leaf electric car but now with Volvo, BMW and Mercedes introducing their own plug-in hybrids a Government initiative Greentech has announced that they will install up to 30 more charging stations across the country with most of them being located along the North-South highway.

Naturally with this expansion it will fuel further emphasis on plug-in hybrids. Malaysia has been slow to adopt electric vehicles and ever since the change in Automotive Policy by the Government the sales of electric vehicles have almost died. However with the new incentive scheme for locally assembled plug-in hybrids qualifying for the tax break the sales have started to grow again. Without the expansion of the charging station network only a small number of people would buy an electric car. Plug-in hybrids are different because it still has a gasoline or diesel engine to power the car. The expansion of the charging station network will not have a big impact on plug-in hybrids since the range offered by the electric motor and batteries barely go beyond 60km and charging time is much longer than any regular refuelling.

I would think that in urban areas more charging stations should be installed so that more electric vehicles should be used to reduce air pollution. Places like large malls, office buildings and hospitals should have charging stations.

The difficult thing about electric vehicles is that there is no one standard charging system for all cars. Some car companies use their own proprietary charging plugs while others use a different type. this makes it difficult. I would think that it will make logical sense for all car companies to band together and agree on one standard system so that they all can benefit from lower overall cost of cables and connectors and not to mention convenience of charging.

Looks like the next wave of electric or plug-in hybrids are here to stay after all. Despite being late to the game, it is still never too late. I am looking forward to see what other models will be introduced in the next few years.

Tesla vs all the car companies

Recently we see numerous car companies claiming that they will be introducing their own version of the electric sports sedan that will rival and beat Tesla. It is funny that all these companies make such claims and will only introduce their cars in 2019 or 2020. That is some 3 years away and yet they are making such claims now. Teslas model P, S or D have been around for a few years now and it takes other car companies so many more years to even catch Tesla. It is ridiculous that they can make such claims when they don't have a car capable of competing with the Tesla now!

Audi, Porsche and now Mercedes claim they will have a competitive car, all of which can charge the batteries to 80% within 30-40 minutes via a rapid charger. Seriously come 2019 or 2020, we don't know how far Tesla would have gone with their development. they could very well move the yardstick much further and the car companies will just have a bigger mountain to climb.
It is very obvious that Tesla made such a big impression that car companies have no choice but try to chase Tesla. Electric cars are definitely here to stay and with Tesla building the gigafactory which will supply more than 70% of the world's car batteries will no doubt be a defining moment in automotive history. And it will be ironic if any of these car companies will end up buying the batteries from Tesla's gigafactory.

Tesla definitely rocked the automotive industry by doing things differently and big detractors like GM and Ford we trying to find ways to destroy Tesla. Despite several crashes that resulted in the driver dying, Tesla was the first company that pioneered the self driving function. Tesla is still the only company that dares to take the first step to introduce the self driving function. It is a huge risk but someone has to do it. Like any innovation there is always the element of risk and failure. Without failure one would not learn the true problems and how to make progress and improvements. to put it simply Tesla is decades ahead of its nearest car company rival.

With every new innovation that Tesla introduces, all the car companies are watching and trying to emulate. Tesla's thinking is many years ahead and since they develop technology that is for the future all the car companies are just playing catch up. Innovation is the key to Tesla's survival and Elon Musk is one man who is willing to take the risk to make a difference.

Being a new car company is never easy but taking the automotive industry head on is another huge challenge. Tesla excelled where the others failed and made electric cars exciting again. I am very sure there will be a new innovation waiting to be introduced and everyone in the auto industry will be watching.