Proton Cars to have new engines by end 2017
Shah Alam, 18 January 2016 – Proton will have a new range of engines for its cars by the end of 2017. This was announced today at the Test Firing Ceremony for the new Proton engine family – the actual test firing (first start-up) was done at a test laboratory in the UK, and was relayed to Malaysia through a live telecast. Present at the launching of this new engine family was Proton’s Chairman, Tun Dr. Mahathir Mohamad.
Development work, which started in March 2015, is done jointly with Ricardo, a global engineering, strategic and environmental consultancy based in Shoreham by the Sea, England.
There are a total of six engine variants to be used for the new Proton engine family, ranging from 1.0 litre, to 1.2 litre, 1.3 litre, and 1.5 litre capacities. The 1.3 litre and 1.5 litre engines will also have turbo-charging in addition to the naturally-aspirated versions. The 1.0 and 1.2 litre engines variants will be 3-cylinder gasoline powered, with variable valve timing. The 1.3 litre and 1.5 litre variants will be GDI (Gasoline Direct Injection), with turbo-chargers (TGDI) added on both as additional variants. At this present time, it is understood that the engines will be Euro 6C compliant, which means that they will meet the latest emission regulations from 2016 inwards.
“In most areas of R & D, there (is) always room for improvements, acquisition of knowledge, technology and skills. This is where Proton takes it one step further in the enhancement of current skills and technology. About 200 engineers are involved in the development within the development period of three years. We have stationed 20 Proton engineers in England alongside Lotus and Ricardo engineers to develop this engine family. Led by a project manager form Proton, the RM600 million development program will take 40 months to complete all 6 variants with the first variant to be launched 30 months by the end of 2017. The design is leveraging on the co-owned IPR in combustion strategy with Ricardo, that was developed earlier in 2012,” said Dato Abdul Harith.
The new engines are claimed to be more powerful and more fuel efficient, producing an average of 20 percent more power while enjoying 25 percent better fuel economy when compared to Proton’s current engines.
Proton also stated that a new CVT transmission with a torque converter is being developed to coincide with the introduction of the new engine family, to provide a new driving experience to its customers. At the same time, Dato’ Harith also stated that Proton is also developing a 2.0 litre engine based on the Petronas engine, which was purchased by Proton some time ago, and this engine will be used to power the larger Proton units.
Video: Proton Test Fires New Engine
