It's Official: Lotus Has Been Bought By Volvo's Chinese Owners
The endless stream of lightly tweaked cars from Lotus should soon start to ease off in lieu of some actual new products. Why? Because Geely’s acquisition of a controlling majority stake in Hethel is now complete.
As anticipated, the Chinese automotive giant has acquired 51 per cent of the sports car firm, and 49 per cent of Malaysian company Proton - owners of Lotus since 1996.
It’s a big deal because we’ve all seen the turnaround Volvo has experienced under Geely. In a relatively short space of time Volvo has replaced the majority of its ageing line-up with genuinely good, refreshingly different cars like the S90 and the new XC60.
Under the control of CEO Jean-Marc Gales Lotus’ financial state has been dramatically improved, with sales up 57 per cent and the company turning a healthy profit. It hasn’t released a properly new car in years however, but with the financial might of Geely at the top, that should change.
Speaking about the completed acquisition, Geely chief financial officer Donghui Li said “With the transaction completion we now look forward to working with our partners to develop the Lotus brand into a globally competitive brand and a well-recognised leader in the sports car market.”
We can’t wait to see what comes next.
Comments
Does this mean that we’ll start to see a new Exige or Evora variant twice a week now? 🤔
What I was thinking
I hope so!
A good move for geely because Lotus needs a new model badly.
We can expect a new Chinese sports car brand called ‘Hydrangea’…
Exige Polestar, let’s do it!
😂
That’s the car equivalent of Wolverine
New lotus products coming to a dealership near you
AHAHAH lol
The popularity of Lotus will decrease by 100%
Why ? Did Volvo’s? No it didn’t.
Yes!! Make Lotus great again
Imagine if they started making the mad cars that they used to, but for the modern world. Probably won’t happen, but I can dream, right?
Begs the question, when will we see a monstrous SUV with a lotus badge on it?
It’s probably going to get called Lotus Edinburgh
Lotus Exige with a Volvo T8 engine.. Seems legit
T6 engine is the same as T8… T8 just has 87hp hybrid system attached to it.
Both are 320hp twincharged inline-4s
Polestar doesnt do Volvo Performance anymore.. but does Volvo bring back the R-Brand and let Lotus tune their cars?
A Volvo version of Lotus Omega would be awesome
That would be soooo awesome
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