The absence of national marque, Proton, at the Kuala Lumpur International Motor Show 2013 (KLIMS13) was because it was unable to get good exhibition space, said show organiser Malaysian Automotive Association (MAA).

MAA president Aishah Ahmad said Proton’s participation came after the balloting of spaces had been done and it was allotted a small space at the second hall which it agreed to accept at first.

“They then came back to us and asked for a bigger space in the front hall, which we were unable to fulfill as there were no available space left,” she told reporters after the opening ceremony of KLIMS13 and concurrently closing of the fourth Kuala Lumpur International Automotive Conference in Kuala Lumpur today.

She said that was the only reason for Proton’s absence that she was aware of and it was not related to cost factors as the participation fee has been the same since 2006.

She also added that Proton’s adviser Dr Mahathir Mohamad had not ruled out any possibility of the company participating in the next edition of KLIMS.

The eighth edition of KLIMS opens to public beginning tomorrow until Nov 24 and features 78 brands including Citroen, Daihatsu, Ford, Honda, Hyundai, Infiniti, Isuzu, Lexus, Nissan, Perodua, Peugeot, Toyota, Subaru and Volkswagen, and is expected to attract 330,000 visitors.

- Bernama