Volkswagen and Proton to collaborate?

Some things take a long time to happen.
Wolfsburg, 26th October 2004 these gents signed a MOU between Proton and Volkswagen.
Two have left their posts. Tengku Mahaleel and Bernd Pischetsrieder have left Proton and Volkswagen. Dr. Mahathir remains the Advisor to Proton.
At the end of 2011 DRB-Hicom sign an MOU with Volkswagen.

DRB-Hicom are puting about 1 Billion Ringgit into Protons production facility.

http://news.asiaone.com/News/AsiaOne%2BNews/Malaysia/Story/A1Story20120810-364503.html
IPOH - The stalled Proton City project in Tanjung Malim is set to be re-ignited after it came to a standstill 15 years ago, said Perak Mentri Besar Datuk Seri Dr Zambry Abdul Kadir.
DRB-Hicom has briefed the state government on plans to reactivate the project on a 1,618.7ha piece of land there, he said.
"The company has come up with a new and comprehensive plan and hopes to set up the automotive city within five years, or even by 2015," he told reporters after the state executive council meeting here yesterday.
"It plans to invest RM1bil and make Tanjung Malim the main Proton car manufacturing centre," he added.
"This is a big plan and it will be a major landmark in Tanjung Malim."

DRB-Hicom obviously see the plant being fully utilised. Good. By whom? Proton, according to the article. For Proton to fully utilise the proposed plant it would have to sell 4 or 5 times as many cars as at present.

They must have some excellent products coming through their R&D portfolio, or they have a plan to share platforms with a best selling brand.

Just conjecture on my part.

Many years ago I worked as a contract designer in Spain. VW had become partners with SEAT. SEAT had previously been state owned and made old versions of FIAT cars.
Martorell was and is the SEAT technical centre. Obviously, they use a lot of VW carry over parts. I don't know if they still use German based contract design offices.

Proton has it's own Tech Centre, as has Lotus. Maybe they can look forward to having a VW management team guiding them in the near future.