Proton may be discontinuing the long-running Persona, the current iteration of which was launched back in 2016. While it got a facelift in 2019 and an update in 2021, the car does not appear to be a part of the carmaker’s future plans.
Paultan.org reports that Proton made no mention of the Persona in its presentation of future plans. Similarly, it not part of the company’s Advanced Modular Architecture (AMA) platform plan either. These were shown off at the Proton Tech Showcase at the company’s Centre of Excellence in Shah Alam.
The report also notes that Proton has plans to have its i-GT engine family replace all Campro VVT and GEP3 engines by 2026. For context, the Persona runs a 1.6L Campro VVT engine. It would be another nail in the proverbial coffin if the Persona is also included in the brand’s i-GT engine rollout.
Should the Proton Persona be truly retired though, it would leave a gap between the Saga and the S70. And it’s quite the gap too, with the new Saga‘s Premium variant costing RM49,990 and the S70 starting from RM73,800. The report notes rumours of a cheaper variant of the latter plugging that gap. At current, the S70 doesn’t come in a naturally aspirated variant, but one may be made to plug said gap.
(Source: Paultan.org [1], [2], [3])
