Proton has revealed that it delivered 1,442 units of the S70 sedan in January 2024. The new release has an order book of over 8,000 names now, which Proton says “reflects the strong and positive response it has received from eager customers”.
The total also includes 15 units exported to Brunei, which once again will be the first export market for a new Proton. The first batch was delivered ahead of the S70’s official launch in the kingdom later this month.
The S70 was launched on November 28 last year, but so far, we’ve hardly seen any on the road. Indeed, Proton’s 2023 sales performance announcement revealed that only 109 units of the S70 were registered in 2023, presumably as test drive units for dealerships. It looks like customer deliveries are truly starting now.
We posed this ‘lag’ question to Proton at the recent S70 media drive and deputy CEO Roslan Abdullah revealed two reasons in the delay of customer deliveries. One is to ensure quality, two is to have the cars registered in 2024 for resale value reasons. There are two aspects to the former – parts and process.
“Production is not slow, but what we’re maintaining is ensuring the quality, because this is a new model for us, and we have to ensure parts quality maturity, as well as our process – assembly maturity. The stock is being produced, but we’re checking thoroughly to ensure that we don’t face the similar problems as when we were so eager to deliver the car to the market,” Roslan said.
“We had a good lesson learned in the past and we won’t make the same mistake, but we’re increasing deliveries starting this month,” he added, without naming the previous model.
“We launched it on November 28, and of course, some customers would like to have it in December, but at the end of the day if you deliver the car or register it in 2023, when it comes to 2024, even if it’s just one day, the market value will be affected. Then the issue of lower second hand value will come in next three years time, or four or five years, just because of the few days,” he explained, roping in RV as a point.
“We engaged with our dealers to communicate with our customers. But for this month, we’re gradually increasing deliveries. Production has been quite stable, but we’re throughly checking, ensuring (the quality) of the process and parts, because some of the unique parts are newly produced by our local vendors, so this is something we have to take extra caution in terms of checking,” the Proton Edar chief reiterated.
The Proton S70 comes in four variants, and they are the Executive, Premium, Flagship and Flagship X. The entry-level Exec kicks off the range at RM73,800, while the Premium sells for RM79,800. For many, the Flagship is where the S70 range truly starts, and it’s yours for RM89,800. If you want a sunroof, dashcam and the exclusive Quartz Black paintjob, the Flagship X is priced at RM94,800.
All S70 variants are powered by a 1.5 litre three-cylinder turbo engine with 150 PS and 226 Nm of torque from 1,750 to 4,000 rpm. This is the engine found in the non-Flagship X50, and the seven-speed wet dual-clutch automatic is also the same transmission that moves the SUV.
More on the Proton S70 in our launch report and spec-by-spec video comparison.
GALLERY: Proton S70 1.5T Flagship X
GALLERY: Proton S70 1.5T Premium
GALLERY: Proton S70 1.5T Executive
The post Proton S70 – 1,442 units delivered in Jan 2024, over 8,000 bookings now; exports to Brunei have started appeared first on Paul Tan’s Automotive News.
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