Lotus: back in the game

Why the future’s bright for iconic British sports car maker Lotus…

March car sales in the UK nudged half a million – a record for the 21st century so motor manufacturing in Britain is in rude health.

It’s also good to see Norfolk-based Lotus Cars is on the road to recovery after major restructuring last year. It’s just enjoyed its best year since 2008/9 with a 55% rise in global car sales at the end of the 2014/15 financial year.
–
A total of 2,015 cars were sold, up from 1,296 over the preceding 12 months.

Sales in the UK have more than doubled to 346 cars (+102%) with similar rises abroad – China (+186%), France (+177%), Germany (+130%), while Japan (+103%) remains the company’s largest export market. In the last 11 months alone, Lotus has appointed 36 new dealers around the world.

The Elise range is leading the way with an 80% increase in volume to 729 cars. Exige S sales are up 52% to 724 cars, while the Evora is up by 35% with 562 cars.

However, Lotus expects these figures to change radically with the launch of Evora 400, premiered at the 2015 Geneva Motor Show, in August.

In addition to the Evora 400, Lotus is also launching other models in 2015 including the Elise 220 Cup, the Exige S automatic option in both coupe and roadster forms, the Elise S 20th Anniversary special edition and the Exige S Club Racer.

Jean-Marc Gales, CEO of Group Lotus plc, said: “This positive result is something that we have not witnessed at Lotus for many years.

“Our continued expansion demonstrates the customer confidence in Lotus and that our product development strategy is meeting its objectives, while remaining true to our core pillars of efficiency, light weight, high performance and driving purity in the most desirable packaging.”

Group Lotus plc, wholly-owned subsidiary of Malaysia’s DRB-HICOM, is based in Norfolk, and has three operating divisions – Lotus Cars, Lotus Engineering and Lotus Motorsport.