Proton Persona exceeds target overseas

Proton plans to raise Exora prices by 5 percent

PT Proton Edar Indonesia, a subsidiary and authorized distributor of Malaysian automaker Proton Holdings Berhad, plans to increase Proton Exora prices by 5 percent after the Islamic holy season.

"We will gradually increase Exora prices within the next few months ... we will have the first price increase after Lebaran *the Idul Fitri holiday," Proton Edar Indonesia national sales head Fransisco Sirait said last week.

"*The price increases* will be around 5 percent of the current prices, where the lowest prices are Rp 175 million *US$17,475* for the executive manual type and the highest price is Rp 208 million for the high-line or supreme automatic vehicles."

Proton's Exora was launched last July.

He said the planned price increases on Exora would not affect sales, based on experiences with other Proton products for which sales continued to increase despite price increases.

Since Exora was launched at the 17th Indonesia International Motorshow, Proton has received orders for more than 700 units as of August, 200 of which have already been delivered, Fransisco said.

Exora sales are expected to hit 1,000 units by the end of this year.

Proton sales have been going "quite well" this year, with its market share up from 0.2 percent last year to 0.4 percent this year, mainly boosted by sales of Exora vehicles, as well as Gen.2 Persona sedan, which was launched in mid-2008.

Gen.2 Persona sales had reached more than 600 units so far, exceeeding the sales target of 600 units for the whole year, he said.

In total, he said, Proton sales had reached some 1,200 units in the January-August period, a two-fold increase from 500-600 units in the same period last year.

Proton has forecast sales will triple from 1,100 units last year to around 3,000 this year.

According to data from the Indonesian Automotive Industry Association (Gaikindo), Proton sales jumped 52.1 percent from 186 units in July to 283 units in August, comprising its Gen.2 Persona (157 units), Exora (82 units), Savvy hatchback (25 units) and Saga sedan (5 units