Lotus (and Proton) on the brink of “collapse”
Newswheel staff :: 16 October 2006 :: Filed under Lotus, Proton, Europe & UK, US
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So says former Malaysian premier
Fact: Proton was founded 23 years ago by Mahathir Mohamad, Prime
Minister of the car maker’s motherland, Malaysia, for 22 long years
from 1981 to 2003. So, when Dr. Mahatir says Proton, owner of Lotus
since 1996, is near collapse, well, it’s worth paying attention…
Speaking to financial news and data outfit Bloomberg, Mahatir spake thusly:
“At the rate it is going, it’s not going to last long. Proton is reporting losses all the time, and they still have a lot of cars which they cannot sell.”
Reportedly, Proton has been losing market share in Malaysia to overseas outfits including Toyota. Mahatir’s favoured solution is a cash injection from and partnership with Volkswagen, a scheme he claims was nearly finalised under his leadership.
“We were working with Volkswagen and we had nearly completed. We would be manufacturing Volkswagen cars here and also using Volkswagen technology here. But the new management wants to work with China and India, thinking that they can enter these markets. I don’t think they are going to get very far.”
Trot over to Bloomberg.com for the full story.
Linkage:
Bloomberg
Posted 16 October 2006, by Ben Collins
Lets hope a German company takes over and starts to run it as a business. Please not Ford Europe :oO