Proton will be rolling up the shutters to its service centres and sales outlets tomorrow as well gradually resuming production at its factories. However, the real gift to the people is the announcement that the locally-assembled Proton X70 will be updated with a N95 cabin filter.
Impeccable timing it is as the Covid-19 pandemic has raised awareness and necessity regarding N95 masks so why not integrate the same functionality into a vehicle’s cabin air filtration system to keep occupants safe.
The move is actually a trickledown from Geely’s commitment in addressing safer and healthier systems for the cabin. Following the pandemic, all Geely models produced from March 2020 onwards will be equipped with a Intelligent Air Purification System (IAPS).
So, how does the system function? Well, there’s an active carbon chemical filter that filters out hazardous pollutants, unpleasant odours and unhealthy gases. Part of the system also houses a negative ion generator that serves to disinfect and purify pollutants circulating in the cabin.
The end result is the decontamination of the cabin’s air that removes airborne pollutants on a level of air filtration as the recommended N95 respiration system.
Although not quite the level of Tesla’s Bioweapon Defense Mode that has a claimed higher filtration rate of 99.97 per cent, the move to upgrade the X70’s cabin air filtration system is a welcome move and surely a feature that might just sway more buyers towards the carmaker’s first SUV.
Much like Tesla’s system though, the IAPS in the X70 isn’t just for keeping Covid-19 at bay but will prove its usefulness in conditions such as the annual haze or even fires. Tesla owners reported that the Bioweapon Defense Mode at full capacity kept the cabin clear of smoke as some of them navigated out of the devastating California wildfires in 2018.
Logic dictates that Proton won’t be raising the pricing of the locally-assembled X70 with the addition of the IAPS. However, the exact availability of models equipped with the new feature has yet to be confirmed and will be announced in due time.