Proton to develop a hybrid engine in the coming years

Proton is another company, which has been impressed by the trend of growing popularity of the hybrids around the world. The company has plans to develop such a car in the next couple of years powered by an electric-gasoline engine. They have not clarified however if they will outsource the technology from the pioneers in the field Toyota or Honda.

Company adviser Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad said in a statement: “It’s not been easy going into hybrids and also electric cars. Proton is working hard, doing research, but the allocation is very, very minimal and the number of engineers we can allocate for research is also very limited.”

The company was started way back in 1985 to get an internal development firm in the auto industry to compete with the international brands in the domestic market. They have been facing problems in acquiring technology ever since Mitsubishi Motors Corp and Mitsubishi Corp, which provided their engine and chassis platforms for Proton cars, sold their stakes in Proton last year.

Toyota already provide their expertise in hybrids to companies like Nissan Motor Co and Ford Motor Co. Even Porsche has shown interest in the Toyota Prius technology for their SUV Porsche Cayenne. In America, which happens to be, one of the biggest markets for such vehicles the auto giants General Motors recently announced plans to develop hybrid technology in collaboration with DaimlerChrysler AG.