Proton Holdings Bhd started selling the Persona sedan, its first new car in more than a year, in a bid to stem four quarters of losses at the Malaysian automaker.

The carmaker plans to sell 30,000 to 40,000 Personas in the next 12 months, Chairman Mohammed Azlan Hashim said on Wednesday in Shah Alam, outside Kuala Lumpur. That’s as much as 35 per cent of its passenger car sales in Malaysia last year.

Return to profit

The new model may help the state-controlled automaker return to profit as early as 2009 by winning customers back from Toyota Motor Corp., Hwang-DBS Vickers Research Sdn said this month. Proton has lost sales and market share to rivals, leading to its first loss in at least 17 years last fiscal year.

The 1.6-litre Persona, designed to replace the Wira, will cost between 44,999 ringgit ($13,000) and 55,800 ringgit. It will carry a standard two-year warranty, Proton said. The car will compete against Toyota’s 1.5-liter Vios, which costs about 85,000 ringgit, and the 40,000-ringgit 1-liter Myvi, made by Malaysia’s biggest automaker, Perodua, short for Perusahaan Otomobil Kedua Nasional Sdn.

New variants

Proton has been seeking a tie-up with Volkswagen AG, Europe’s biggest carmaker.  The automaker, set up in 1983 by then-Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad, rolled out new variants of the Savvy compact car and Waja sedan in January. It last introduced an all-new model, the Satria Neo hatchback, in June 2006.

Proton will launch more new models over the next 12 months, Mr Azlan said. The company was looking at exporting the vehicle to Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, Australia and Britain.