Malaysia’s national car brand is reportedly looking to try again here.

AROUND three decades after trying - and failing - to impress Kiwis with  ‘Japanese technology, Malaysian style’, the Proton make might be seeking to  re-energise in New Zealand.

The Malaysian national make is now allied with Geely and primarily making sports utilities and crossovers using the Chinese brand’s cars as templates.

Talk of it making a return here has come from an information share with Britain’s Autocar magazine.

It says the brand is on verge of a major global export expansion that is set to take it back to right hand drive markets.

New Zealand, Australia and the United Kingdom are cited as being locations of renewed interest, the magazine says, in citing sources close to its CEO, Li Chunrong.

The expansion is also planned to encompass new right-hand-drive markets throughout Asia and South Africa. 

Proton was last here in the late 1980s, when it sought to retail in a deal with Mitsubishi New Zealand. 

Then the sole car of choice was the Proton Saga, a re-engineered Mitsubishi Lancer variant that was a generation older to the one the Japanese make was also presenting to the market. Easily identified by its over-sized diamond badge on the nose, the 1.5-litre sedan failed to take hold.

Now it is making cars drawn off designs created by Geely, which since 2017 has been a 49.9 percent stakeholder in Proton.

Autocar reports that the new pitch is is intended to significantly boost Proton’s global sales following the establishment of a new headquarters and manufacturing base currently under construction in Tanjung Malim in western Malaysia.

Known as Automotive Hi-Tech Valley (AHTV), the facility is part of a multibillion-pound investment by Geely and Malaysian industrial conglomerate DRB-Hicom Berhad.

Proton - which is short for Perusahaan Otomobil Nasional - dates back to 1979, when the idea of a national car maker for Malaysia was conceived. 

Proton was formed in 1983. Less than two years later, the Saga was born. It was Malaysia's first car. The Saga continues to be a nameplate in its home country.

Which models could come in to circulation is unconfirmed, but the company announced an electric car on August 4.

That’s the e:MAS 7, based on the Geely Galaxy E5 sports utility and part of spin-off brand e:MAS, seems to have best potential.

Proton currently sells four models based on the Geely Binyue, Boyue, Haoyue and Emgrand and badged as the X50 (pictured), X70, X90 and S70.

It also continues to produce three traditional models from its former operations with Mitsubishi – the Saga, Persona and Iriz.