And this? Youngman and Lotus join forces for the Lotus L5 in China

I’m not against Chinese and budget models, as long as they meet some minimum safety and quality standards, even if they don’t put much effort into advanced designs. I’ll insist that the sponsorship of the Malaysian brand Proton over the Lotus Group is a thorn in the side of the English brand that it doesn’t deserve. Even though they charge fees for using the Lotus name.

The Lotus L5 is just one more of those cheap Chinese cars aimed at that emerging market. And as such, the cars must roll off the line as fast as sausages, without even stopping to think minimally about design. What’s happening here is that Lotus-Proton has licensed the manufacture of some models in China to a bus maker called Youngman, which has launched this four-door car, questionably named Lotus L5.

This time it’s not a copy of anything, nor even an illegal use of the name (which would have been the only thing missing). Youngman has the right to use the Lotus name, since Lotus accepts a name-usage fee from the Eastern brands associated with the Proton group. Not only that, but Lotus itself is pushing models like this one through some joint projects with Youngman, and the first result is this one.

The model is not spectacular at all. An economical saloon powered by the 1.6-litre CamPro CPS engine (the best part of the car), the first technical collaboration between Proton and Lotus, which already equips a number of Proton models today.

Via | China Car Times