HAS LOTUS FINALLY SECURED ITS FUTURE?

Investment by Geely will mean a new Elise – and the tantalising possibility of a hybrid Esprit supercar

AT THE END OF SEPTEMBER, Chinese automotive giant Geely purchased a 49 per cent share of Proton, in the process acquiring a 51 per cent stake in Lotus Cars and expanding yet further a brand portfolio that already includes Volvo and a nowindependent Polestar – as you’ve just been reading all about on the preceding pages. This is clearly a pivotal moment for the British sports car maker.

‘I am now drawing up the business plan – it is a busy time,’ says Lotus CEO Jean-Marc Gales when we meet in his office at Hethel. This quietly but rapidly spoken CEO, who exudes an infectious passion for this great brand, now has the enviable task of plotting the company’s future course with the knowledge that funds are there to make it a reality.

That’s not to say that Geely throws cash around with abandon, but it has proved that it is both willing to invest considerably and also allow a brand to follow a bold new vision, and it’s now reaping the benefits with a strongly resurgent Volvo. Its equally bold strategy with Polestar is further evidence that it’s not afraid to strike out against the traditional flow of the car business. Statements emanating from its Hangzhou HQ point to Geely senior management having both enthusiasm and high expectations for its latest acquisition, with no intention of leaving it as a sports car minnow nestled in the Norfolk countryside.

But wait, I hear you say; we’ve read about a Lotus renaissance numerous times in the pages of car magazines over the years. Why should this occasion be any different?

There are a number of reasons why this time really is different. Among them, firstly, is that Lotus is in a much better financial position now than it has been for a long time. Sales are small but on the rise – up ten per cent so far this year – and Gales’ mission to cut wastage, both in production terms and in the component make-up of the cars, has paid dividends. Lotus may be concentrating on highly profitable limitedrun machinery, but it’s building cars that customers are clamouring to buy.

Secondly, have you driven a Lotus lately? Take the Evora GT430 – a car almost unrecognisable from the original Evora launched nearly ten years ago. Not just in the performance on offer – at a price, granted – but in the way it’s screwed, and glued, together, the quality of the materials used inside and out, and the design and execution of those all-important details. The old jibes about Lotus quality will take a long time to fade away, but, in our experience, they’re as hollow and outdated now as a similar gag about Skoda.

So what next in product terms? In the near future, expect a continuation of the highly focused limited-run models that have so far characterised Gales-era Lotus. Looking further ahead there will be an all-new Elise, about which we can’t wait to learn more, but there will also – almost inevitably – be new types of vehicles. Which raises the potentially thorny subject of Lotus building a Cayenne rival.

Gales is tight-lipped on the subject, saying only that any new vehicle the company makes must be ‘a true Lotus’, but it’s doubtful he can ignore the inexorable rise in demand for SUVs. Porsche succeeded by staking out its own territory within the SUV segment, and which it has largely retained despite attempts by others to muscle in. What chance a ‘lightweight’ SUV with hybrid or electric power sourced from Polestar? And what chance, too, a sports saloon, or a hot hatch?

Perhaps most tantalisingly of all, the planets suddenly seem curiously aligned for the reappearance, at long last, of the new Esprit supercar that we’ve been dreaming about for decades. For so long powered by a turbocharged four-cylinder engine, any spiritual successor could major on Lotus’s weight reduction expertise and use the twin- or prototype triple-charged four-cylinder 2-litre Volvo T6 four-pot, combined with Lotus/Polestar electric battery technology for 600bhp-plus. Fascinating times ahead. ⌧

It’s doubtful Gales can ignore the inexorable rise in demand for SUVs