When Proton launched the e.MAS 7 at the top of 2024, the thought of a national brand leading Malaysia’s electric vehicle market would have sounded far-fetched. In spite of everything, many individuals consider EVs as a luxury item, a T20’s toy. Would they need to drive a national brand?
A yr and a half later, that is precisely what has happened. JPJ registration data shows Proton has not only joined the EV race, it has run away with it.
Start with the headline number. Proton registered 8,890 battery-electric vehicles in the entire of 2025, a solid result that put it second behind BYD’s 14,407. In the primary five months of 2026 alone, it has already registered 11,642, comfortably beating its entire 2025 tally with seven months of the yr still to go. No other brand out there is growing anywhere near that quickly.
The turning point was the arrival of the e.MAS 5. The larger e.MAS 7 had been a gradual performer through 2025, averaging somewhat under 750 units a month.
Then the smaller, cheaper e.MAS 5 reached showrooms in November 2025 and altered every thing. In January 2026 it racked up 3,068 registrations in a single month, greater than 4 times what the e.MAS 7 had ever managed, and it has stayed in four-figure territory since.
It helps that the e.MAS 5 is a rebadged Geely Xingyuan, and its donor model isn’t any abnormal small automobile: in China it has grow to be the one best-selling model of any kind, electric or otherwise, on the planet’s largest automobile market. Malaysians, it seems, have taken to it just as enthusiastically.
One other factor that drove the adoption of EVs are probably geopolitical turmoil which drove fuel prices higher and a quota for subsidised Budi95 petrol. Many are only seeing the switch to an EV as a hedge for future rising fuel prices.
The result’s a genuinely remarkable picture at the highest of the EV table. Through May 2026, Proton is the best-selling EV brand within the country by a distance, with its 11,642 units greater than double the 4,599 of second-placed BYD. The Chinese giants that dominate headlines, BYD, Zeekr, Xpeng and the remainder, are all chasing a Malaysian national brand. Put one other way, 45.6% of each EV registered in Malaysia this yr has been a Proton, up from 19.8% across 2025.
There are just a few things to take note. The figures listed here are battery-electric registrations only and don’t include the e.MAS 7 PHEV, which is a separate plug-in hybrid model. A few of the early-2026 surge also reflects order backlogs being cleared and the frenzy of EV buyers ahead of the expiry of import duty exemptions for fully imported EVs at the top of 2025. Even so, the trajectory is unmistakable. With an inexpensive, locally-relevant EV within the e.MAS 5 and a more premium option within the e.MAS 7, Proton has done what nobody quite expected, which is to make the national brand the face of Malaysia’s EV transition.
Did you expect Proton to steer the EV market? Tell us within the comments.
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This Article First Appeared At paultan.org
