Back in 2017, the Chinese holding company Geely bought 49.9% of the shares of the Malaysian company Proton. Since then, local versions of three Chinese crossovers have appeared in its lineup: first, the Geely Atlas turned into the Proton X70, then the Proton X50 was made from the Coolray, and the Proton X90 from the seven—seat Geely Haoyue SUV. Now the turn has come to the sedan, the donor for which was Geely Emgrand, which recently entered the Russian market.
From the outside, the newly-minted Proton S70 differs from the Chinese donor only by a large-mesh radiator grille, emblems and nameplates. There are no other changes, and even the wheels of the cars are identical. The overall dimensions are the same: 4638 mm in length, 1820 mm in width and 1460 mm in height, and the wheelbase is 2650 mm.
Apart from the controls moved to the right side, the interior of the Proton differs from the Geely steering wheel with a modified hub and other buttons. The general architecture of the front panel, the digital “dashboard” and the widescreen tablet of the multimedia system are the same. But instead of the traditional gearbox selector, an unfixed joystick is installed — and this is a sign of serious technical differences between the Proton.
If the Geely Emgrand can have either a four-cylinder 1.5 atmospheric engine or a hybrid powerplant based on it (only in the PRC market), then a three-cylinder 1.5 turbo engine with distributed injection, familiar from the Geely Coolray model (or Proton X50 in Malaysia), is installed under the hood of the Proton S70 model. It develops 150 hp and 226 Nm, and is paired with a seven-speed “robot” with two clutches. Emgrands for different markets are equipped with “mechanics”, a classic “automatic” or a variator. That is, the most dynamic version of the sedan was made for Malaysia.
The production of four-fours has already been established at the Proton plant in Malaysia, and we are talking about a full cycle with welding and painting of bodies. On the home market, the Proton S70 is available in four trim levels, the price range is from 73800 to 94800 Malaysian ringgit. This is 1.43—1.83 million rubles in direct translation at the current exchange rate. In Russia, a Chinese-made Geely Emgrand with an atmospheric engine now costs from 2.0 to 2.48 million rubles.