Lotus Bought by Chinese Car Giant, Geely

The Chinese are certainly getting noticed in the luxury and supercar market these days. Hot on the heels of the Chinese-owned NIO EP9 Nürburgring lap record, it has just been announced that Chinese car giant Geely has bought Lotus.

You may not be too familiar with the name Geely, but in fact Geely has owned Volvo for 7-years now, so their track record is proven. In fact, there is a good thing about not knowing who Geely are; it shows that the Volvo owners are happy to let Volvo retain its own identity. We can therefore be pretty hopeful that the same will apply to Lotus.

Indeed it should be a renewed period of growth for Lotus, who had begun to find funds hard to spread around all of their plans, funding the new Elise (due 2020) themselves. The Lotus deal is part of a larger buy-out by Geely that includes the direct owners of Lotus, Proton. Geely will own 49.9 per cent of Proton.

What does this mean for the Elise?

Lotus have said about the new Elise that it will continue in the Lotus way, that of producing great sportscars. Intriguingly though in light of the Geely deal, they have not ruled out a name change, although we have been assured that the car will still be under a tonne and still look like an Elise from the other side of the road. Part of the development includes space for an Exige V6 variant, which will include bigger wheels to comply with USA regulations as well as a longer wheelbase.

CEO Jean-Marc Gales seems to be at pains to reassure the fans of the Elise (ahead of any complaints no doubt) that the famous and easily recognisable lightweight sportscar will essentially be the same whatever the badge may say. In fact, most of the key individuals involved in the development of the Elise are still based at the Lotus Hethel factory in Norfolk, where Lotus have been based since the year England won the World Cup in 1966.

Geely, seemingly not wanting to sit on their laurels, have also just announced a new brand called Lync & Co. The brand will look towards building high end vehicles based on a platform being developed by Volvo.

The Chinese car market is expanding and many existing manufacturers have long been excited about this vast new horizon for their sales. So it shouldn’t really be any surprise that the country itself has a car giant getting increasingly involved. While producing new cars under a new brand is interesting, the car market has always relied on the prestige of existing brands to generate sales – and from that viewpoint, Lotus must be a major coup.

Like What You’ve Read?

For more articles like this, receive our weekly e-newsletter, including partner deals and all things motoring, register your email below.

Please note: You cannot subscribe to Smart-Motoring unless you put a tick in the checkbox below to indicate have read and agreed to our privacy policy.