Proton eMas 5 CKD to start this month in Tg Malim – locally assembled EV will replace CBU China stock

by · Paul Tan's Automotive News

We know that the locally assembled Proton eMas 5 is coming soon, but how soon? Very soon, this month kind of soon.

Proton revealed the timeline in its monthly sales press release, which announced deliveries of 883 units in May ‘ahead of the commencement of local assembly operations’. Despite the relatively low number (by its own high standards), the eMas 5 is still Malaysia’s best selling EV year-to-date with 9,357 units delivered in five months.

“With CKD production scheduled to begin this month, Proton eMas expects supply to strengthen further in the coming months to support growing customer demand,” the company said.

The eMas 5 will roll out of Proton’s EV factory, which sits on a 5.57-acre site within the carmaker’s complex in Tanjong Malim, Perak. Launched last September, the RM82 million facility has a first phase capacity of 20,000 units per annum.

Last month, Proton announced a RM37 million expansion plan that will take annual capacity to 42,000 units. The plan was accelerated due to good demand for the eMas 5, which has been CBU imported from China since launch.

The eMas 5 is priced at RM56,800 for the Prime and RM69,800 for the Premium, on-the-road without insurance. Both are rear-wheel drive, powered by a single motor that produces 79 PS (58 kW) and 130 Nm of torque on the Prime and 116 PS (85 kW) and 150 Nm on the Premium. The Prime uses a 30.12 kWh CATL lithium iron phosphate (LFP) unit for a range of 225 km on the WLTP cycle, while the Premium’s 40.16 kWh pack delivers 325 km.

2026 Geely Xingyuan update with 47.14 kWh battery

As for charging, the Prime accepts up to 53 kW of DC power, while the Premium does better at 71 kW; both can be topped up from 30% to 80% SoC in 20 minutes. The max AC charging rate is 6.6 kW. Jade Green joined the colour options in April.

Will we be getting the latest Geely Xingyuan update that surfaced in China last month? The eMas 5’s donor car is entering its third year on the Chinese market and has been given a larger 47.14 kWh LFP battery from CATL, which delivers a range of 480 km on China’s optimistic CLTC cycle (expect closer to 390 km on the more realistic WLTP). That’s a significant improvement from the 310 km (225 km WLTP) and 410 km (325 km WLTP) achieved by the 30.12 kWh and 40.16 kWh variants of the EV.

The new 47.14 kWh version also accepts higher DC fast charging power, taking 19 minutes to go from 30 to 80% SoC (21 minutes on the other variants) despite the larger capacity, although AC charging is still at 6.6 kW. Too soon for us perhaps but one can hope.

GALLERY: Proton eMas 5 in Jade Green

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