Last week, Geely punched a hole in a Japanese fortress when it took a 49.9% share of Proton of Malaysia. Some historical background: Japanese brands have utterly dominated Southeast Asia's car markets since the late 1970s when oil shocks forced American car makers to retreat. Led by Toyota and Honda, Japanese car brands take 92% of the region's annual car sales. In Indonesia, Southeast Asia's largest market, Japanese share of the car market (95%) is higher than in Japan, the highly-protected home market. Exporting to Southeast Asia markets was never an option.

Source: Forbes May 29, 2017 20:33 UTC