The upcoming ‘Proton S50’ sedan will be launched in two months time. This is according to Proton CEO Dr Li Chunrong, who revealed the timeline at the handover ceremony of Malaysian cultural crafts to athletes for the Hangzhou Asian Games Museum, held at Proton’s COE base this morning.
Just around the corner then. The S50, codenamed SS11, has been spotted testing all over the country for quite some time now, but our latest sighting of the camouflaged sedan sees a bodykit on the well-proportioned sedan. The S50 is a three-box sedan based on the Geely Emgrand, and it will take on two strong incumbents in the Honda City facelift and fourth-gen Toyota Vios.
The Proton S50 will have a bigger footprint though. The Emgrand measures 4,638 mm long and 1,820 mm wide, and that comfortably eclipses the latest DNGA-based Vios, which is larger than the car it replaces. Those dimensions also means that the S50 is larger than the Preve.
The Emgrand can be had with a 1.5 litre naturally aspirated four-cylinder engine with 114 PS/147 Nm of torque, paired to a five-speed manual or CVT in China. It’s underpinned by the modular BMA platform used by the Proton X50, so we can also wish for 1.5 litre three-cylinder turbo engines from the SUV.
One thing is for sure though – the SS11 sedan will not have Android Auto and Apple CarPlay. Instead, the IHU will be an improvement of the current version. This was confirmed by Proton deputy CEO Roslan Abdullah in July.
As is always the case when Proton’s Geely products goes up against Japanese rivals, much will depend on price. The Toyota Vios is priced from RM90k to RM95k, while the broader Honda City range – which has a hybrid range topper – is priced from RM85k to RM110k. The Proton X50’s price range is from RM86k to RM113k. How much do you think the S50 sedan will be?
GALLERY: Geely Emgrand, Philippines spec
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