Proton eMas 5 previewed – name confirmed, based on Geely Star Wish/Xingyuan, Q4 2025 launch?

While Perodua is showing off a cutaway of its new electric vehicle at the Malaysia Autoshow 2025, Proton has puled the wraps off that car’s main competitor – a new small hatchback now confirmed to be called the eMas 5. Except the wraps have not fully come off, as it’s still covered in copious amounts of very colourful camouflage.

Still, it’s very clear what this car is based on – the Geely Star Wish, sold in China as the Xingyuan. That much is evident in the rounded design, the sweptback head- and taillights and the most obvious design cue – a cut in the C-pillars that is filled with horizontal lines. Of course, the eMas 5 comes with the Proton eMas roundel at the front and the Proton script at the rear.

The car is locked and heavily tinted, so we can’t get a good look at the car’s interior (or even tell if it’s left- or right-hand drive, although the wiper orientation suggests the former). However, we do know that the Xingyuan has a very organic dual-cowl dashboard design with an 8.8-inch digital instrument display, a large 14.6-inch infotainment touchscreen, 256-colour ambient lighting and illuminated dash and door panels, the former with a cool skyline graphic.

Other Xingyuan features include auto air-con with rear vents, power-adjustable front seats, a 50-watt Qi wireless charger, a 3.3 kW vehicle-to-load (V2L) function. The car can also be had with driver assists such as autonomous emergency braking, traffic sign recognition, lane departure warning, automatic high beam and front vehicle departure alert. We expect all of those to be carried over to this eMas model.

No technical details have been revealed just yet, but in China, the Xingyuan is powered by a single front motor producing 79 PS (58 kW) and 130 Nm of torque, paired to a 30.12 kWh CATL lithium iron phosphate (LFP) battery that delivers a range of just 310 km – and that’s on China’s ridiculously lenient CLTC cycle.

The “long range” option boosts outputs to 116 PS (85 kW) and 150 Nm and has a larger 40.16 kWh LFP pack, but even then, it can only travel up to 410 km (again CLTC) on a single charge. Perhaps Proton will insert the 49.52 kWh and 60.22 kWh Aegis short blade packs from the eMas 7, which would be a good shout if it is to cater the car more to Malaysian buyers – and especially if it intends to compete with the likes of the BYD Dolphin.

The eMas 5 will be launched around the same time as Perodua’s offering, around the end of the year. With both cars now out in the open, the battle between the two brands looks to be as hot as it has ever been. Which would you get? Sound off in the comments after the jump.

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