Malaysia's Mitsubishi Lancer : Proton Inspira Rolls Out!!

Proton Inspira vs Mitsubishi Lancer?

Just the Facts:

• Mitsubishi Lancer twin, called the Proton Inspira, launches in Malaysia this week.
• Inspira has Mitsubishi powertrains with 1.8- and 2.0-liter MIVEC engines paired with CVTs.
• Proton and Mitsubishi continue to have a close relationship.

If the new Proton Inspira — launching in Malaysia last November 10 — looks strangely like the Mitsubishi Lancer, that's because it is essentially the same car. Intended to replace the Proton Waja, which the company developed itself and sold over the past eight years, the Inspira shows that reality has set in for the Malaysian national carmaker. 

The business case for the replacement model showed that the potential volume did not justify Proton's spending millions to develop a car on its own; cloning one would be more sensible. This, of course, is now commonplace in the industry as manufacturers share platforms or buy models from each other and rebadge them so as to be able to be present in a segment.

But for Proton, which is owned by the government, the move was criticized by some politicians as a national embarassment because it suggested that the company was incapable of developing its own model, never mind the business considerations. Perhaps the attitude was because Proton, under its previous management, had arrogantly declared itself fully capable of developing its own cars and had no further need to take others' models, as it had done in its earlier years when it had Mitsubishi Motors as a partner.

So Proton has been putting in a lot of effort to educate Malaysians about how the industry really works and why taking a model designed by someone else is not embarrassing. Actually, the majority of Malaysian buyers share the negative view, and in fact many are delighted that they can buy a Japanese model at a cheaper price. To prove this, 1,100 orders were received within the first 10 days after dealers began accepting bookings for the Inspira.

On Mitsubishi's part, it's just business, and they get the extra volume for the Lancer, not to mention selling many parts to Proton for the model. The two companies still have a close relationship, although the Japanese carmaker is no longer seen as a mentor but more as an equal. Proton would like to do more with Mitsubishi, but in many discussions, it wants more control of things — something that Mitsubishi and other potential partners have not been keen to allow.

The Inspira has Mitsubishi powertrains with 1.8- and 2.0-liter MIVEC engines paired with CVTs. The engines have not been retuned for Proton, but the suspension settings are different from the Lancer. Grudgingly, Mitsubishi engineers have acknowledged that the tuning done by Proton's engineers has given the car sharper handling without sacrificing ride comfort. That's not surprising, since Proton has learned much from Lotus Engineering, which it has owned since 1995.

Price-wise, the Inspira will cost significantly less than the Lancer in Malaysia because it is made locally, whereas the Mitsubishi is imported as a CBU from Japan. Not only are import duties lower, but the investment Proton has made to produce the model locally entitles it to financial incentives that allow it to bring down retail prices. Such incentives are offered to any company that makes its vehicles in Malaysia, but Proton gets a big chunk because it has the biggest investments, including R&D.

Over the next 12 months, Proton will start increasing Malaysia-made parts in the Inspira and aims for 60 percent local content by November 2011. Production numbers are in the region of 1,500 to 2,000 units a month for domestic sale. 

Mitsubishi is not against Proton exporting the Inspira in the ASEAN region later on but reportedly wants to see substantial differentiation in exterior looks before this is allowed to happen. There's also talk that if Proton can make the cars meet Mitsubishi's quality standards, it may be possible for the Malaysian factory to be an offshore production base for Mitsubishi.

This latest Proton-Mitsubishi deal does not signal any long-term arrangement, and Proton is known to be talking to a few companies about a replacement model for its larger Perdana, which was originally cloned from the 1994 Mitsubishi Eterna.