Malaysia’s first national car, the Proton Saga, rolled out to the masses in 1985 and marked a momentous year in its history. An elusive dream for most nations, PROTON made it a reality for Malaysia. Since its inception, PROTON has become a key driver of national development as it paves the way forward with technology transfer, strategic partnerships and technical collaborations. Today, with the collaboration of our strategic partner, Zhejiang Geely Holding Group, PROTON continues to design and build cars as it helps shape the landscape of Malaysia’s automotive industry, while it aims to grow big internationally.
Enter the Proton X50, Proton’s second model to be based on a Geely – in this case, the Binyue (or the Coolray as it’s known in other markets). The car is part of a licencing agreement inked in 2018 which will also see the arrival of a rebadged version of the Jiaji MPV. Although the X50 is a bit smaller than the X70, it rivals the Honda HR-V in terms of size by millimetres due to it being derived from the Binyue design. One of the key features of the X50 is it is built on Geely’s B-segment Modular Architecture (BMA) and as such features MacPherson strut suspension at the front and a torsion beam at the rear. Proton claims that the car features a total of 406 unique parts compared to the Binyue, as a result of the switch to right-hand drive.
Standard equipment includes keyless entry with remote engine start, push-button start, manual fabric seats, manual air-conditioning, an N95 cabin filter, rear parking sensors, a reverse camera and four speakers. The Executive bumps up the feature list with automatic headlights, a leather-wrapped steering wheel, front parking sensors and faux leather upholstery. Stepping up from the Premium model all the way to the Flagship model will give you more safety features such as Advanced Driving Assistance System (ADAS) and the key highlight being Intelligent Cruise Control (ICC) which combines adaptive cruise control with stop and go and lane centring assist to provide Level 2 semi-autonomous driving capabilities. This allows the car to accelerate, brake and steer on its own.
As standard, the X50 comes with four airbags, ABS with EBD and brake assist, stability control, hill start assist, hill descent control and rear Isofix child seat anchors. Moving up to the Executive model nets you curtain airbags to make it six in total, while the Premium adds a tyre pressure monitoring system. Hence, all these sensors do require considerable amounts of electricity. We recommend our NAGA DIN60LMF with 60AH and CCA500 to ensure stable distribution to the Electrical Control Unit (ECU) to allow efficient management between all the relevant sensors found in the Proton X50.