British company Lotus produces a record 2200 sports cars in 2023
The British carmaker Lotus is readying up for new Eletre electric SUV sales under Chinese owner Geely’s expansion strategies.
The British carmaker Lotus made a record number of sports cars in the first half of 2023 as it readies up for a tremendous push behind sales of a new electric SUV under its Chinese owners’ expansion strategies.
Lotus, celebrating its 75th anniversary this year, produced 2,200 cars in the first six months at its ex-second world war bomber factory at Hethel in Norfolk.
Most cars produced were the Emira sports car, the first new Lotus creation since the Chinese automotive group Geely purchased a 51% stake in 2017.
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The production record will last for a while, as Lotus has begun to deliver the first of its Eletre sports utility cars from a new factory in Wuhan, China, as part of a Geely plan to raise yearly production to 150,000 by 2028.
Geely has funded around £3bn in Lotus, ahead of a planned listing of its electric vehicle business on New York’s Nasdaq stock exchange. It will float through a union with a particular purpose acquisition firm (Spac) backed by LVMH, the luxury goods business controlled by the billionaire Bernard Arnault.
“We’re seeing the first green shoots of the investment coming through,” stated Mike Johnstone, who was appointed Lotus’s chief commercial official in January. “It shows that the machine is cranking up now.”
