The Youngman-Proton tie up is producing some interesting cars, not interesting in a ‘wow‘ factor but more interesting in the ‘What were they thinking?‘ aspect. Youngman bases its cars off the Proton RCR, a car that was originally sold in China but has since given away to two self developed models from Youngman, neither products are easy on the eye.

Perhaps the cars aren’t all that good looking, but they are selling well. Youngman’s plan has always followed Communist guerrilla war plans which basically follow the control the countryside, and take the cities mantra, thus Lotus vehicles are often spotted in second, third and fourth tier cities around China. Youngman’s next step is to go up market with the introduction of the new T5 SUV, the T5 is reportedly based on the Lotus APX SUV design that was set to be a Porsche Cayenne rival. The concept was to come with a turbo assisted V6 engine, but that has been dumped in favor of economy in this new T5, a small displacement 2.0L naturally aspirated engine off the shelf from Mitsubishi and also a 1.5T will find its way into the new SUV.

The T5 measures in at (LxWxH) 4508 x 1782 x 1559 and has a wheelbase of 2730mm, making it a fairly large vehicle. It’s no low end vehicle either, halogen front lights, LED rear lights, automatic AC, cruise control and leather seats are reportedly coming as standard items. Pricing is not expected to be low end, with Chinese media throwing out figures of 120,000RMB and rising.