Update: Lotus denies claims of Chinese built Europa

Updated: Lotus has officially denied claims it'll be assembling cars in China with local carmaker Jinhua Neoplan. The plan would have seen Jinhua assembling the Europa model as well as another unnamed car from knocked-down kits for sale in China as early as the end of this year. Lotus does, however, have an engineering contract with Jinhua Youngman, the parent company of Jinhua Neoplan, to develop a four-door sedan for the Chinese market. The new sedan will be based on Malaysia’s Proton Gen2 and will be sold under the Europestar label in China.

Original: Chinese carmaker Jinhua Neoplan Vehicle Co. has signed a deal with Malaysia’s Proton to build two different Lotus engineered models scheduled to go on sale by the end of the year. Jinhua Neoplan has already been involved with Lotus, helping with the development of three models engineered by the British carmaker. These include the Europa, Proton’s Gen-2 and the MPV concept car from last year’s Beijing Motor Show.

An inside source close to the deal has told newspaper China Daily that two of these cars will be manufactured in China, likely to be the Europa and Gen-2 small hatch. The cars are being developed strictly for the Chinese market so readers in other countries shouldn’t hold their breath for cut-priced Lotus cars to hit showrooms.

Jinhua has an existing partnership with Proton, sourcing 30,000 of the Malaysian cars for sale in China under the ‘Europestar’ label. Future plans will see more models from Europestar with engineering work performed by Lotus.