Now, PM Mahathir Mohamad plans to give Malaysia a new 'national car'

Mahathir is reviving his dream of a new national car after the automaker he started in the 1980s was privatized

Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad is reviving his dream of a new national car after the automaker he started in the 1980s was privatized and a stake was later sold to a Chinese company.

“Our ambition is to start another national car, perhaps with some help from Southeast Asia,” he said at a Nikkei conference in Tokyo, his first official overseas trip since being reinstalled as premier last month. “Malaysia has the capacity to do almost 100 percent of the development of a new automobile. This can be obtained by having foreign partners.”

Proton Holdings Bhd., the carmaker Mahathir started