Proton had won two awards in a not-so-typical race, which is the RAC Future Car Challenge Brighton to London, a race among hybrid and electric vehicles. In the race that was held last weekend, Proton won two awards – the Most Efficient Multi-Purpose Car (Prototype) and the Best Overall Extended-Range Vehicle (E-REV). Both were courtesy of the Exora REEV. The Best E-REV award was shared with the Toyota Prius Plug in Hybrid.

The Best Overall Entry award went to the Gordon Murray Design T.27 Electric Car, which also won the Best Overall Pure EV award and the Most Energy Efficient Small Car (Prototype) title. If you don’t know, the flower shirt-loving Gordon Murray is the designer of the legendary McLaren F1 – the man drove his own creation, and you can find him in our gallery. Also spotted at the race were Damon Hill and veteran motoring hack Steve Cropley – regular Autocar readers should know the latter.

Another big winner is the already on sale Nissan Leaf EV, which won the Most Energy Efficient Regular Car (Production) and the Best Overall Vehicle On Sale today accolades. The best ICE vehicle went to the Mini Cooper Diesel, although it didn’t have much company since most were EVs or E-REVs.

The Persona REEV was the first of Proton’s three entries to cross the line. Driver and lead engineer of the Malaysian assembled effort, Muhd Zulfadzli, was very happy with the drive. Their strategy worked to perfection and they arrived with 8 mins to spare. The Wankel engine kicked in for 4.5 mins after the car exhausted all its battery charge. As comparison, last year’s winning Exora had its generator running for 34 mins.

Unfortunately, there were some problems with the data collected, and the Persona wasn’t included in the results, which is a shame. It wasn’t Proton’s mistake and the team is gutted, to say the least. It will take two days to repair and “unscramble” the data, apparently, so there could yet be more good news.

The Saga EV had a closer call. Driven by Noamaan Siddiqi and assisted by Datuk Zainuddin Che Din, Proton’s Green Tech Dept director, they arrived with just 2 mins to spare, and with 0% charge left. It didn’t help that they started with just 80% charge (to give the other Protons more juice) and the traffic in downtown London was busy. The Exora REEV arrived last, just in time.

“I am overjoyed, to say the least! We were surprised with the Exora REEV victory last year as the Best E-REV Vehicle and we were determined this year not to take that victory for granted. So, for Exora REEV to come up victorious once again this year, with two more additional awards to its name is truly a remarkable achievement for Proton.

“The fact that we are tied as the winner in the Best Overall E-REV Vehicle category with another world class automotive manufacturer speaks volume about our standards and capabilities in this field,” said Proton MD Datuk Seri Syed Zainal Abidin of the result.

SOURCE via Paultan.org