Lotus news

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www.ft.com

Carmaker Lotus plans to end production in the UK

Closure of historic Norfolk plant would put 1,300 jobs at risk and be the latest blow to the country’s auto industry
www.ft.com www.ft.com

www.lbc.co.uk

Carmaker Lotus 'to end production' in the UK after 60 years putting 1,300 jobs at risk

Carmaker Lotus is set to end production in the UK after more than 70 years, putting 1,300 jobs at risk.
www.lbc.co.uk www.lbc.co.uk

www.bbc.co.uk

Lotus considering shifting UK production to US, BBC understands - BBC News

The BBC understands the car maker is considering the move amid the introduction of US tariffs.
www.bbc.co.uk www.bbc.co.uk
 
This is terrible if true. Chinese masters want to sell more lotus branded Chinese EV’s in to the US, sod the brand and its history…
 
rare said:
This is terrible if true. Chinese masters want to sell more lotus branded Chinese EV’s in to the US, sod the brand and its history…
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The EV is made in China and was never made in the U.K.….

It’s a partly British design by a team based in the midlands, built on a platform developed in China and manufactured in China.

The folk in Norfolk never touched it.
 
Conscript said:
Surely Trump's tariffs are the biggest factor here? I didnt think the US was a major market for Lotus but apparently it is.

Crap news either way :(
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Indeed, the US isn’t exactly a low wage economy, typical wages are higher than the U.K., a small % NI rise isn’t going to change that.
 
b0rn2sk8 said:
The EV is made in China and was never made in the U.K.….

It’s a partly British design by a team based in the midlands, built on a platform developed in China and manufactured in China.

The folk in Norfolk never touched it.
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Yes indeed. Maybe they figured it was going to be too expensive to export from China to the US anyway, and they would rather sacrifice the UK plant on an effort or divert resources to a new plant.

I honestly think if they kill the UK site and move it to the US then it’s a dead brand.
 
Geely the parent company is MASSIVE, Lotus is a pretty small part of their portfolio. Geely are on a bit of a cost cutting mission, Polestar is another one of their brands under the spotlight for profitability. Geely have existing manufacturing plants all over the world and if they can cut costs by consolidating production, this is the result I guess.

Lotus is loss making IIRC, they need to do something otherwise it is just a dead brand as you say. They only sold 12,000 cars, half were ICE cars made in the UK the other half were EV's built in China.
 
Nasher said:
RIP. Chinese will destroy the brand.
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The brand was on the path to irrelevance/bankruptcy long before Geely and over the prior decade before their acquisition by Geely had lost substantial amounts of money. Lets not let the facts get in the way of posting complete nonsense on the internet.
 
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A real shame that - but I guess if they can make more money manufacturing elsewhere then that's the way it was always gonna go.
 
The fact is that they can make more (some) money making 2.5 ton SUVs than lightweight sports cars. As such Lotus as we all know it was an anomaly in being able to survive as long as it did.

It's just another Chinese brand now, just that 'Lotus' is more palatable than 'DongWang Motor' or whatever for our western tastes. Same story as MG.
 
b0rn2sk8 said:
The brand was on the path to irrelevance/bankruptcy long before Geely and over the prior decade before their acquisition by Geely had lost substantial amounts of money. Lets not let the facts get in the way of posting complete nonsense on the internet.
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Indeed, Geely pretty much bought a corpse and propped it up - if it finally dies, it's not exactly their doing, they just strung a few more years out of it.
 
Kenai said:
Indeed, Geely pretty much bought a corpse and propped it up - if it finally dies, it's not exactly their doing, they just strung a few more years out of it.
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I don’t think it would die, it will just be assimilated into a fully Chinese brand like MG.

China is 25% of Lotus’ market share, that’s massive and could continue to expand with the continue pitch as Lotus as a Chinese brand.

The Chinese are buying more and more domestic these days as their domestic offerings are frankly, excellent and are every bit as good as a European brand these days.
 
Won’t be anything left here soon.

b0rn2sk8 said:
I don’t think it would die, it will just be assimilated into a fully Chinese brand like MG.

China is 25% of Lotus’ market share, that’s massive and could continue to expand with the continue pitch as Lotus as a Chinese brand.

The Chinese are buying more and more domestic these days as their domestic offerings are frankly, excellent and are every bit as good as a European brand these days.
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And the rate of progression they’ll be the industry leaders soon, on price, quality and tech.
 
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Rilot said:
That's a shame. I think if Geely hadn't stepped in, the brand would be gone. At least the name gets to live on.
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I'd honestly rather see the brand consigned to the history books than used for badge-engineering some heavyweight electric SUV that is the antithesis of Colin Chapman's principles. It's a real shame that the Elise (and its derivatives) are no longer a viable new product. I'd love to have been in the position to buy one new when they were still available.
 
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