PROTON

The idea of a national car was conceived in 1979 by the then Deputy Prime Minister, Mahathir Mohamad, approved by the Cabinet in 1982, and Proton was established on 7 May 1983 with Mitsubishi as partner. The result, the Proton Saga of July 1985, was based on the second-generation Mitsubishi Lancer Fiore saloon with a 1.3-litre engine. Sales outstripped supply, and by mid-1986 Proton held 64 per cent of the Malaysian market below 1,600 cc; exports to Ireland began in 1988 and to the United Kingdom in 1989.

Proton built rebadged Mitsubishis through the 1980s and 1990s, and in 2000 produced its first indigenously designed car, still with a Mitsubishi engine, which made Malaysia the eleventh country able to design cars from the ground up. It owned Lotus from 1996 to 2017. DRB-HICOM acquired the company fully in 2012, and in 2017 sold a 49.9 per cent stake to the Chinese group Geely.