National carmaker Proton marked a new milestone for its Saga nameplate in a special ceremony held earlier today. The entry-level sedan model is set to be marketed in left-hand-drive (LHD) form in Egypt soon, and it will be locally assembled (CKD) there too.
The announcement was made earlier today at the Proton Centre of Excellence (COE), Shah Alam, by Proton top management led by CEO Dr Li Chunrong, Deputy CEO Roslan Abdullah, as well as Chairman Tan Sri Syed Faisal Albar. Also present here was HE Ragai Tawfik Said Nasr, Egyptian Ambassador to Malaysia.
Tasked with assembling the Saga in Egypt is a firm called ESAF (Ezz Elsewedy Automotive Factories), which formed a partnership with Proton’s Egyptian distributors Ezz Elarab back in Nov last year. The effort saw US$15 million (approx. RM56.40 million) invested into its establishment, and the venture touts in having a production capacity of 50,000 units in the coming years.
Following the announcement, a special ceremony was also held to flag-off several trucks at Proton COE loaded with the first 120 CKD packs of the Saga ready for shipping to Egypt. Proton is poised to leverage on this new Egyptian CKD operation as a regional hub to produce cars that will be marketed in the Middle Eastern North Africa (MENA) region – something Proton mulled for quite some time now.
This CKD effort also align with Egypt’s Automotive Industry Development Programme (AIDP) launched by its government back in Nov last year. At the core of this initiativee is the Egyptian government’s push at promoting CKD assembly whilst severely slashing CBU imports.
The Saga sedan is the sole model Proton markets in Egypt since re-entering it back in Nov 2018. Prior to this, the Saga was sold as fully imported units (CBU) that were built in and shipped from Malaysia.
The automaker presently markets the current, face-lifted version of the Saga in Egypt since launching it there in Dec 2020. Three variants are offered – Standard MT, Standard AT and Premium AT – and all share the same 1.3-litre 4-cyl VVT petrol mill developing 94 HP and 120 NM.
Following today’s announcement, Proton now boasts a total of five active overseas CKD operations. Besides Egypt, Proton assembles cars in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, as well as Kenya. With these operations, Proton seeks to increase its overseas export quantity to 10,000 units in the coming years – up from the 5,000 units it exported to 20 countries back in 2022.
