Malaysia’s premier national car maker, Proton was made a little over two decades ago, and for the first decade made cars that were totally without distinction. Nevertheless the realisation that feeding a hungry domestic market was one thing (specially when the industry was protected by high duties on imported cars) but satisfying an export market another thing entirely, it began raising its game.

Buying Lotus Cars was integral towards the success of the policy: Lotus delivered that engineering expertise previously unavailable within the Proton factory or design centre in Selangor.

There’s still a method to go, obviously – the company couldn’t reinvent itself overnight – but it’s getting there, and also the current range is the greatest yet. The brand new Gen2 second generation, is set to spearhead a brand new export drive, and it has been made to take the brand into brand-new market places.