This is a Lianhua L3, a small sedan for the Chinese car market, launched in 2009. The Lianhua L3 was made by a company called Youngman-Lotus, which was a joint venture between China’s Youngman Automobile and U.K.’s famous Lotus Cars.
The Lianhua L3 itself was based on the Proton Gen·2. At the time, Proton was the sole owner of Lotus Cars. Proton and Young agreed that Proton would provide the know-how and complete knock down kits (CKD) for the Youngman-Lotus joint venture.
Youngman also had the distribution rights in China for the Lotus Cars sports cars. Lotus Cars then agreed that Youngman-Lotus could use the Chinese name of Lotus (you still with me?) on cars made by the joint venture.
The Chinese name of Lotus was Lianhua (莲花). Initially, the joint venture made two models: the Lianhua L3 hatchback and the Lianhua L3 sedan, which we have here today. Later on the added the Lianhua L5 to the lineup, which was developed in China by Youngman-Lotus.
The logo was a wild lion, clearly a play on Proton’t logo.
And… there is the Proton logo, and the Proton name, on each of the car’s windows. This is typical for CKD production, where the majority of the parts comes from the original manufacturer, in this case Proton. All Youngman-Lotus really did was adding the new badges.
The Lianhua L3 sedan was not a bad looking car, but it wasn’t very exciting. It launched in China in 2009. Power came from a Proton-developed 1.6 liter petrol engine with 111 hp and 148 Nm. The engine was mated to a five-speed manual or a four-speed automatic. Price, in 2009, started at 74.600 yuan, which made the L3 a direct competitor with cars like the Citroen ZX and Volkswagen Jetta.
The lion-badge on the wheel.
The interior was completely Proton too. Automatic gearbox in this car. Seat covers and neck pillow are after-market.
I always liked the light design.
The characters write Lianhua auto.
Lotus Cars had not permitted the use of the English Lotus name on cars of the joint venture. But for marketing purposes they counld’t resist using the name anyway, and they got around that by making this badge: Engineered by Lotus, with Lotus in the Lotus font. Smart thinking…
Sadly, sales were rather poor. The joint venture did not have enough money for marketing and dealers weren’t very interested. In 2012 Proton and Lotus pulled out, and the distribution agreement for Lotus Cars sport cars was cancelled as well.
But in the best Chinese fashion, Youngman continued making the L3 and L5 on its own. And in a bizarre twist: they kept the right to the Chinese Lotus name. When Lotus much later officially returned to China they had to choose a new Chinese name, which became Lutise (路特斯).
Fast forward to today, and Geely is now the owner of Lotus. Over the last couple of months I have heard lots of rumors that Lotus is going to get it’s original Chinese name back, with Geely buying it from Youngman. But as far as I can see, those rumors haven’t translated into facts yet.
The Youngman Lotus Lianhua L3, an interesting Malaysian-Chinese oddity.
[table id=194 /]