of Asean's national cars

Among Asean's national carmakers, Malaysia's Proton and Vietnam's VinFast are leading the way in playing catch-up.

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In fact, Proton's e.MAS 7 was the bestselling EV model in Malaysia for the first nine months of 2025, with 6,655 units, or one out of every four electric cars, sold.

Risk-averse buyers see the familiar Proton brand as the perfect mix of value for money and reliability, even if the vehicle is, for all intents and purposes, a rebadged Geely — the Chinese automotive conglomerate that owns 49.9 per cent of Malaysia's first car brand.

"My wife has wanted to change to an EV to be more environmentally sustainable," bank executive Stanley Hoong Yik Miin, 49, told ST. "We waited for Proton because we were worried about after-sales service, and Proton is here to stay as our national carmaker. There are brands that go bankrupt, and the moment they go, I won't know who to look to any more (for after-sales support)."

With the successful launch, Proton will now manufacture the e.MAS 7 and the upcoming smaller e.MAS 5 at a new factory in Tanjung Malim, Perak, which has a capacity of 20,000 EVs a year that can be expanded to 45,000 units.

The price for the e.MAS 7 is then also likely to dip below RM100,000 from its current starting price of RM105,800 while the e.MAS 5 — which garnered 3,000 bookings a week after orders opened on Oct 4 - is set to be priced between RM60,000 and RM80,000.

And after an absence of 12 years from the Singapore market, Proton announced its return in August 2025, with the e.Mas 7 going on sale in September.

Still, the likes of BYD are not sitting on their hands. It repriced its 2025 Atto 3 to RM123,800 — an astonishing RM44,000 lower than when it was launched in 2023 - to bring the car within range of the e.MAS 7, whose premium model is at the same price.

It has also earmarked the second half of 2026 to begin local production, as Proton's neighbour in Tanjung Malim, which would allow it to go below the RM100,000 price floor.