Prime Minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad has reiterated his desire to have another national car project, now that Proton has been sold to China.

"Proton is no longer our national car. It is now owned by China.

"Our ambition is to start another national car, maybe with some help from Asean countries and our other partners," Mahathir said during the Nikkei Conference in Tokyo today.

Former prime minister Najib Abdul Razak engineered the sale of a 49.9 percent stake in Proton to China's Geely last year.

DRB-Hicom, which is owned by tycoon Syed Mokhtar Albukhary, holds the remaining 50.1 percent stake in Proton.

Previously, Mahathir had said that the federal government does not intend to buy back Proton, as it no longer owns what was formerly the national carmaker.

The company, which was started in 1984, was Mahathir’s brainchild.

This is not the first time Mahathir has spoken about a new national car.

He first mooted the idea in August 2017, saying he had some ideas about starting a new automotive company similar to Proton if Harapan were to win Putrajaya.

“I would say, if I cannot get Proton (back), I have some idea about starting another automotive (company), remembering of course, that the idea of building a national car is not just for the sake of having a national car, but as a catalyst for growing our engineering know-how and capability,” he had said.