The name kicked up a storm as those who took part in teh naming competition protested the decision, arguing that the name, is close to that of the flower Ixora. In fact Proton MD said so and drew parallels to the mini bouquet and how the Exora is about travelling in a large group.
Proceed to the bottom of the entry to see Proton’s explanation.
The name Exora is a derived from Ixora, a flower that we commonly see in most bushes or shrubbery around the country.
Ixora is a genus from the family Rubiaceae and is a common tropical plant and is found the world over. The Malay name of this flower is Jarum Jarum and names in other languages include rangan, kheme, ponna, chann tanea, techi, pan,. Common English names are West Indian Jasmine, Jungle flame, Jungle geranium.
I know that I may get a lot of flak for saying this here but I worry that many people will have trouble pronouncing it properly, is it suppose to be ek-so-ra/ ek-so-ra/ ik-zo-ra/ek-zo-ra/ e-zo-ra/e-so-ra….
That said I suppose Proton would have clinicked the names to death before settling on this one so pronounciation may not be such an issue.
Proton picked the name form the naming competition and it was thought up by Norsholihan Bt Abdul Eanich. Come April she is going to be one happy camper who gets to drive off in the seven-seater Exora.
The Exora’s tagline is Keriangan Keluarga. The tagline is very appropriate in describing the spirit of the car.
Proton said that the MOV will be priced under RM80K and available in five colours, Genetic Silver, Tranquility Black, Blue Haze, Pyrite Brown and Gaia Blue.
The Exora will feature a maximum of two airbags and that’s about all that we know regarding the safety features.
Proton spent just a few bobs over RM450 million developing the Exora and it will be put together in Shah Alam plant which will churn out between 3,000 and 3,500 cars a month.
Those are initial production figures, if demand is strong they can ramp up the line to produce double those numbers.
Although other car companies are taking a cautious approach during these dark days of economic uncertainty, Proton decided to be a contrarian and hope their model will be the only interesting new product launched recently and will attract sales.
This strategy may yet pay off for the national carmaker if the credit line for car financing has not been yanked tight.
The various stimulus package which includes interest rate cuts may encourage people to spend rather than keep their money in a low-interest account.
Whatever itis, the Exora will open a new frontier for Proton and they will find themselves scrambling for market share in a highly competitive segment where the dominant players are Toyota and Nissan, giants who will not be shy to flex their muscle and protect their turf.
The sub RM80,000 pricing will put it above the Avanza and below the Grand Livina and the Kia Rondo, the most obvious alternative choice to Japanese MPVs at the moment.
With that pricing we can expect the Exora to pack at least comparable cabin space as the Grand Livina and Rondo but may not match them in terms of safety and other features.
The spyshots of the Exora indicates that the dimension are comparable to the Grand Livina and looks to be slightly smaller than Toyota’s ever popular Wish.
It will be interesting to see how the Lotus DNA will affect ride and handling. I certainly hope that Proton can continue with their tradition of offering very decent driving cars at affordable prices.
PROTON CLARIFIES THE NAME OF ITS NEW MPV
PROTON Holdings Bhd would like to thank the public for highlighting the
issues and understand the points raised by many of them.
In naming the new Proton MPV, EXORA, PROTON had subjected all the
entries to a vigorous selection process. EXORA was chosen because it was
not a name for any animal and vegetation although it had similar
pronunciation as the flower, IXORA. EXORA does not exist as a word.
In the selection process, PROTON had eliminated all entries which
referred to any animals and vegetation. For example, PROTON had received
a total of 139 entries which named IXORA and 39 entries for EXORA.
Because IXORA is a flower, we eliminated the entries from our final
selection.
The 39 people who had submitted the winning name had also chosen the
name for various other reasons. The winning entry was chosen because of
the tagline “Keriangan Keluarga” or family joy.
For PROTON, the name and tagline symbolizes the company’s effort to
offer the best vehicle which could offer family togetherness. We
understand that Malaysian families like to travel together and we want
to ensure that we can be part of this “joy”.
The MPV symbolizes PROTON’s efforts to incorporate many of the best
features available in a passenger vehicle. The features are designed to
meet the needs of typical Malaysian families. The MPV, which can carry
up to seven passengers represents unity and togetherness as well as
strong family ties and harmony that Malaysians value.
