Proton’s fourth Geely-based model and its first all-new sedan in more than half a decade, the Proton S70 have been well received by Malaysians since order books opened 10 days ago.

Proton Deputy Chief Executive Officer, Roslan Abdullah, said it had received about 400 orders for the Geely Emgrand-based sedan within a week of the bookings announcement. The Malaysian Tiger targets sales of about 2,000 units a month for the S70.

The sedan has been available for booking at all Proton outlets with a RM 500 deposit since 1 November. Its official launch and price will be announced later.

The public will be able to view the S70 in person this weekend (11 November) though Proton has not yet announced any details on the public preview venue.

Also read: 2023 Proton S70 officially confirmed - 1.5L turbo engine, DCT, public preview from 11 November

The S70 will be offered with a turbocharged 1.5-litre engine paired with a dual-clutch transmission. This powertrain combo is never offered on the Geely donor car which is offered with a naturally aspirated 1.5-litre 4-cylinder unit with either a 5-speed manual transmission or a CVT.

Though the turbocharged unit loses one cylinder from its NA counterpart as Proton is committed to the 3-pot engine, whether it’s the port-injected unit (150 PS/226 Nm) or the direct-injected engine (177 PS/255 Nm) will only be revealed later.

Though the S70 is a C-segment sedan, its prices are likely closer to the Honda City and Toyota Vios which are B-segment sedan models.

Also read: No longer No.1 in B-Sedan sales, Proton Persona coming under severe pressure from Honda City and Toyota Vios