Lotus NYO arrives in China
British sports car brand Lotus had its official debut in China yesterday with the brand opening making Beijing its base market in China. Due to China’s Youngman already using the Lotus name in Chinese (which is Lianhua), Lotus have had to call themselves Lu Te Si which is a phonetic translation of the Lotus name into Chinese, and to make it really clear that Lotus are not connected with Youngman’s economy car selling project Lotus have added NYO to the end of their name, which according to media reports is to make them sound like New Lotus
Lotus are going to bring in three models to China, the Elise, Evora and Exige are expected to hit the market in September to October later this year and prices are expected to start at 800,000rmb and rise to 2 million rmb. Lotus are only planning to bring in less than 200 cars per year to get around pesky local homologation issues for the Chinese market. Lotus are aiming to set up 4 dealers in China this year in key car buying markets, but this expected to expand to 8 markets in early 2012.
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Who wants to bet NYO stands for:
Not Youngman, OK?
If you read NYO as a word, it sounds like “niu”.
800,000rmb and rise to 200,000rmb
Should be 800,000 > 2,000,000
Changed – my bad, thanks!
Talk about poor brand/market planning (allowing Youngman to use the Lotus name), I bet they are really regretting that now.
Interesting to read that note about homologation issues – what kinds of issues are there?
In a nutshell: You can import less than 200 cars per year into China as long as they are street legal in Europe and meet Chinese basic safety specs, as soon as the no goes over 200 you need to start homologation process here in China which is a nightmare and a financial pit for a small car company, hence keeping sales under 200 units. I know of a few car companies that are planning to enter China using the same low sales methods.
Thanks, but I was wondering what was involved in the homologation process. I’m guessing there’s some certifications (ie- maybe CNCAP testing), but suspect it’s mostly red tape and $$ like you mentioned.
CNCAP is optional (I believe), red tape and visiting office after office after office collecting stamps like they are Pokemon.
Ah yes, the stamp collecting game (I’d heard about that for other industries).