PROTON Concept Car: It’s Powered by Lotus and Styled by Italdesign

Proton hybrid concept car

A picture is worth a thousand words! You can see in the image above just how sleek the new PROTON Concept car looks! However that’s not the focus of this article. What is however would be the couple of green innovations that have been added to boost the profile of this head-turner!

The PROTON Concept car…

Is a plug-in series hybrid city car. The car has been styled by Italdesign. What’s more intriguing are the couple of additions by Lotus engineering, the world-renowned automotive consultancy division of Lotus Cars Limited.

From the press

The PROTON Concept car, to be unveiled at the Geneva Motor Show, showcases an advanced series hybrid drivetrain, designed and developed by Lotus Engineering.

Concept car at geneva motor show

For the original Images go to Geneva motor show image gallery

The additions?

The complete hybrid drivetrain. This is an electrical drive system that has single-speed transmission, produces low emissions, and shows optimized performance and acceptable electric-only operating range for use in the city.
For longer journeys however, there is the 3 cylinder, 1.2 liter Lotus Range Extender engine, which can be used to replenish the battery charge and provide electrical power for the drive motors, when the battery-level falls below a certain point.

Lotus drivetrain

The thing about being a plug-in hybrid is that the car can be plugged in to the grid to refresh its batteries’ charge, wherever there is an EV charging station available.

It is truly amazing that this collaboration between PROTON (a malaysian car maker), Lotus and Italdesign, has produced a car that is both stunning and is also thoughtful of the environment!