Proton’s sales target for the new S70 sedan is around 2,000 units a month, said deputy CEO Roslan Abdullah, who added that the company has received around 400 bookings for the S70 in the first week following the line-off/bookings open announcement on November 1. The booking fee is RM500.
Roslan was speaking to the media at Proton’s Tanjung Malim plant yesteday, where China vice president Han Zheng paid a visit.
The monthly target of 2,000 units is a pretty big one. To put it into context, the popular X50 – which is vying with the Perodua Ativa to be Malaysia’s top selling SUV – is averaging around 2,500 units per month for the past two quarters and is Proton’s second best-selling model after the Saga.
Where does 2,000 units put the S70 in the sedan arena? Not enough to topple the Honda City from the top of the B-segment mini league based on current figures, as it’s averaging around 2,400 units a month. The B-sedan market is where the S70 will be priced, so the City/Vios are its true rivals, but Proton is calling it a C-segment sedan, with a ’70’ badge to match.
If so, the S70 will be the C-sedan segment leader by many folds over the Honda Civic – a given when the S70 is priced like a City. This is pretty much the same scenario as the X70 – Proton put its first Geely product in the CR-V segment with HR-V pricing – so we’re expecting to see ‘best selling C-segment sedan’ statements in future press releases.
However, there can only be so many car buyers at the same price range every month, and if more people opt for the S70 over the two similarly-priced Japanese-badged sedans in the City and Vios, the Proton may end up outselling them too. Only time will tell.
To recap what we know so far, the S70 is based on the Geely Emgrand, which shares the BMA platform with the X50. Size wise, the S70 is in between the City and Civic – its 2,650 mm wheelbase is 50 mm longer than the City but 85 mm shorter than the Civic.
Under the hood is a 1.5-litre turbo engine with a dual-clutch transmission instead of the 1.5L NA CVT combo seen in the Emgrand elsewhere. We’re expecting this to be the same powertrain used in the X50 Standard to Premium, which means 150 PS and 226 Nm.
More on the S70 here, and fill up this form if you want to book a unit with Proton PJ.
GALLERY: Proton S70 in other colours
The post Proton S70 – 2,000 units per month sales target for the new sedan, 400 bookings received in first week appeared first on Paul Tan’s Automotive News.
