Reports that Proton will begin making sports utility vehicles (SUVs) and mobile people-movers (MPVs) in a bid to claw back its falling domestic and international market share, are about as ludicrous as Arabs one time thinking of hauling icebergs from the North Pole to the Middle East to give them more water.

You would have to wonder about the calibre of the management at Proton to dream up such marketing nonsense. Where it fits into Proton's business model is anyone's guess.

But at a time when oil prices are shooting through the stratosphere, with no end in sight, and as oil supplies shrink while demand soars, Proton's loony senior managers must be on ganja trips to think SUVs and MPVs will save their hides, their jobs and the company.

They won't.

Research shows that sales of gas-guzzling SUVs and MPVs in the US, Europe and Australia have been falling steadily. As petrol prices rise further, and inevitably, the SUV and MPV sales will collapse precipitously.

Data also shows that owners of SUVs and MPVs in these countries are offloading their vehicles and climbing into smaller, petrol-friendly vehicles.

Unless Proton managers have cooked up their market research, or Malaysia is suddenly awash with petrol and cheaper prices by world standards, Proton is destined hit the wall.

Moreover, the world's automobile industry is in crisis - one that will lead to nothing less than an all-round downsizing. Why does Proton think it is immune to the same?

If Proton is relying solely on the China market to help it pull out of the rut, it is kidding itself. Despite China's high growth rates, and the fact that Chinese are shedding their bicycles for automobiles, it would be a spurious claim that all Chinese are in the market for motor vehicles, let alone Proton's planned SUVs and MPVs.

If Proton's managers are worth their pennies, they would undertake research on the nature of the Chinese dualised economy, income distribution trends over the last 36 years of Chinese growth, and the global energy environment, especially petroleum. They may just come to realise that their business plan is like Asian growth of yesteryear: it is built on sand. Or fairies, more like.