The Lotus CityCar Concept, essentially a three-door version of the Proton EMAS concept with Lotus’ new face, is confirmed for production, according to reports. Shown at the 2010 Paris Motor Show alongside Lotus’ five concepts, the CityCar will not be alone in the premium mini car market, it will be accompanied by the Aston Martin Cygnet, which is a rebadged Toyota iQ with luxury trim.
“The city car concept is now confirmed for production. That’s called the Lotus Ethos, and it’s due about 2013,” said Lotus spokesman Alastair Florance, who added that the “Ethos” will be built by parent company Proton. “It’s being worked on right now – people out in Malaysia are working on that.”
So it’s a rebadged Proton then? “We’ll work extensively on the engineering – the Lotus version will be very much a Lotus,” Florance was quoted as saying. “But I believe there will be a Proton version.” That’s the EMAS folks.
It will be bigger than the Cygnet/iQ, and the Lotus city car is planned as a hybrid-only model. The concept is powered by a plug-in series hybrid drivetrain with the ability to run solely on electric power, but a 1.2-litre three-cylinder petrol engine is there as a range extender, eliminating range woes.
Click here to view our live gallery of the Lotus CityCar from Paris 2010.
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just nice to compete with bmw i3 and cygnet in 2013/15
‘lagi best’ takde chance dah lepas ni.. come on proton, lagi lagi lagi dan hentam lagi sama p2!
Go hybrid and electric, that is the way forward!
But why a petrol range extender? Am I right thinking because it’s a small car thus the need for a compact engine?
Normally you’d think that a diesel would be more efficient, they’d probably run on palm oil too :D
Make solar panel as roof as standard too, I want a piece of that Malaysian sunshine.. a lot of people park their car 9-10 hours under the sun everyday…
good luck.
wowww…time to shine ur talent and more proton…
Wow! A rebadged Proton car to be in Lotus form. This is great achievement. Sure Dr.M is proud. By the way, is it using Nissan Micra platform?
surely.
The onewith Proton badge will be my next car
Danny,
Any words from Proton about this? Surely you have some kind of insider inside… right? :mrgreen:
no need for insider. Mofaz works for Proton maa
no, i’m not.
it’s coming =)
mini lancer….
I want this for my first small car..or do i wait for proton emas?
ethos came first.after that emas.just wait for emas it just same car as ethos.
Wonder how much it’ll cost…or will it even be sold here if Proton were to build and sell EMAS in Malaysia.
if hybrid, it maybe expensive.
but if i remember correctly, Lotus will be using Hybrid engine, But Emas will have a new small engine from proton, not hybrid.
nope, essentially this model is very base on EMAS proton concept car.
the difference ONLY is the “badge” and few design and spec.
as of now, proton are really keen with hybrid technology and you can see from previous paul post.
The Lotus Savvy is reborn.
i like !!
Really good news from Lotus/ Proton! Hope the Proton version price range is within reach by mass consumers
love this and aston
alamak isn’t that Stormtrooper of Star Wars?
reminds me of catfish with very wide mouth… a very futuristic and w-i-d-e catfish. =)
love the name thou.
meh
did proton force you to buy one?
good luck to proton.. make money and make us proud
Well done Lotus!! But….build by Proton……lets’ see. Danny, any idea 1.2 litre engine come from??
if it’s a range-extender module developed by Lotus then it’d most probably use the 1.2L from Lotus itself as Lotus has filed patents for the system.
Obviously Tanjung Malim engines. We all know how “good” is Tanjung Malim engines. Hehehe.
so what???
to me engine from tanjung malim not bad at all..my car now clocked at 250,000km..NO problem at all!!
At least it’s better than anything you ever come up with.
Good one! Proton is really very busy and churning out nice products recently! :D
Put a Proton badge on this and people call it budget transportation.
Put a Lotus badge on it and voila, a fashion statement.
Vaporware…
are you sure that is the right term for automotive? and coincidentally this post was just about lotus that are ready for production of “ethos”.
Proton will start building prototype models for testing in november. They call it GSC for global small car
comes with free GSC movie tickets?
‘global small car’ hopefully means, that the EMAS will be sold in Europe too.
Daimler sold 94.300 ‘Smart Cars’ in 2010…
well it’s truth, 1 for Proton badge (cheap) and another 1 for lotus badge (expensive)
win-win situation
Actually its the other way around. Sell bloody expensive to fellow Rakyat. But sell dirt cheap to foreign market. The Rakyat has always been the unofficial major shareholders and R&D guinea pigs. Hello, is everyone taking a good NAP?
well other country(almost all) in Asia has similar system like bolehland only differ in names n structure only..u go to indo car forum they will said their car is the priciest in the world, u go thai forum car same word, u go lioncity same also…
should bring it here already…come on proton !
fuhyoh! ini lagi syok!
looks like Jabba the Hutt
well done Lotus!
Why use 1.2-litre engine for a city car like this.Performance & zipping around traffic like luke skywalker is certainly not the key.It’s merely a basic personal travel capsule…so I reckon a 2-cyclinder 600cc ultra fuel economical turbo-charged engine pair with a 5-speed cvt box will be ideal enough & sell it dirt cheap to the rakyat.Btw the front stormtrooper face is too big for this car lah.
btw, i think the main difference between this and EMAS is the doors…LOTUS got 3 doors, EMAS has 5. 5 doors are more pratical in Malaysian market.
Then we can buy Proton EMAS and change the bumper and emblem to Ethos one.
nice!
the different is Ethos got more premium and branded items and more power engine..and EMAS only got basic items and not so premium interior and lowerr spec engine…
Looks exactly like my grumpy hubby when the doc cuts up his knee.
As always Msian will get the crumbs and hand me downs
while Lotus gets the very best of everything.
Come on Proton, after 25years of support and this is what
you can offer in return??
Why can’t P1 just rebadge the same Lotus spec
like what they did to the Lancer and proudly claim it as
a Proton !!
of course can, but you just need to pay premium price.
if you do want to pay premium price why don’t you get the premium brand as well. For Proton its different pocket of the same trousers (unlike the mitsu case).
P1 supporters will accept anything dished out
for them, even leftovers they will say it is very very good !!
Why go for 2nd best when we Malaysian deserve only the best from Proton.!!
We want both models here – not only the lower spec ones.!!
How much more can it cost when we already have the Insight & Prius as
our benchmark !!
They made the right decision to build the car with Proton. If Lotus succeeds, Proton may be able to expand its production in Europe.
Proton will gain as they will learn new processes from Lotus. Lotus will gain should they decide to manufacture/assemble in Europe. Trained personnel from Lotus / Proton will be available to move both companies to a higher level.
Not clear is another company is involved. Mitsubishi or Nissan. Perhaps a surprise from Toyota. On May 2011, Danny Dany Bahar envisions a potential tie-up with Toyota.
Ooops, all baseless proton basher speechless.