20,000 Proton EVs could soon be produced locally every year when this Tanjung Malim plant goes live by end-2025.
Proton has recently initiated construction of a groundbreaking electric vehicle (EV) manufacturing facility at its Tanjung Malim complex, marking a significant milestone in Malaysia’s automotive industry and the first major step in the development of the nation’s Automotive Hi-Tech Valley (AHTV). This RM 82 million plant is currently scheduled for completion by end-2025, and will establish an initial production capacity of 20,000 units annually.
This facility’s premiere product when operations eventually commence will be the locally-assembled Proton e.MAS 7, with this particular e-SUV currently arriving fully imported from Geely’s Hangzhou factory. The Malaysian automaker has further hinted that this upcoming plant will also be rolling out other models based on the Global Modular Architecture (GMA) platform, and thus giving further credence to the imminent arrival of either a smaller all-electric e.MAS 5, or a PHEV counterpart to the e.MAS 7.
A new purpose-built facility that caters to the production of New Energy Vehicles (NEV), Proton touts that a range of solutions under the umbrella term of “smart manufacturing technologies” have been deployed in this plant to ensure the delivery of high quality products with maximum efficiently and minimal impact to the environment. The production line features a high degree of automation in its operations by leveraging on robotics, cloud based plant management, industrial internet-of-things (IOT) and technologies synonymous with IR 4.0.
Despite the utilisation of the latest intelligent production operations however, the Malaysian automaker estimates the new plant will lead to the creation of over 200 new jobs, specialising in EV industrialisation and technical services, for the local community. And this is before the knock-on effect to the vendor community in the Automotive High Tech Vally in Tanjung Malin is calculated, as it ramps up operations to supply value added parts to critical to assembly operations.
Proton’s commitment to EV manufacturing ambition builds upon its earlier initiatives, which includes the establishment of PRO-NET for the local distribution of smart in 2023, as well as the launch of the e.MAS 7 late last year. The company has since also outlined expansion plans through a second phase for this Tanjung Malim site, which could increase production capacity to 45,000 units annually, based on domestic and international market demand.
The Proton e.MAS 7 is currently available in 2 variants locally: Prime & Premium. Both variants feature the same front-mounted ’12-in-1 Electric Drive System’ outputting 160 kW (218 PS) and 320 Nm of torque, which in turn sees for this e-SUV to quote a 0-100 km/h time of 6.9 seconds and a top speed of 175 km/h.
Both variants of the e.MAS 7 are also to be powered by a battery pack comprising of Aegis Short Blade cells of a lithium iron phosphate (LFP) chemistry. The Prime however comes a smaller 49.52 kWh battery pack that is only good for a WLTP-rated range of 345 km, whereas the Premium nets a larger unit with 60.22 kWh usable capacity, which hence extends that figure to 410 km.
Prices for the Prime variant of e.MAS 7 was originally slated to start at RM 109,800, while the Premium was set to be priced at RM 123,800. Thanks to the ongoing RM 4,000 rebate though, here is what this Proton e-SUV will currently cost in both Peninsular and East Malaysia for the first 6,000 customers:
| Variant | Peninsular Malaysia | East Malaysia |
| e.MAS 7 Prime | RM 105,800 | RM 108,800 |
| e.MAS 7 Premium | RM 119,800 | RM 122,800 |
