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Lotus Sold to Geely

2K views 10 replies 10 participants last post by  cornbeef 
#1 ·
Lotus found a buyer!

Geely bought a 51 percent stake in the Lotus Cars and a 49.9 percent stake in Proton, a Malaysian car company, according to Automotive News Europe.

The move is similar to other Geely purchases over the years. The company bought Volvo in 2010 and the London Taxi Company in 2013. And the Lotus engineering mentality of "simplify and add lightness" could prove helpful in making more efficient EVs for the company.

And don't think Lotus is bought to be stuck on a mantle like some corporate trophy. Daniel Donghui Li, Geely's CFO, said the company plans to "unleash the full potential of Lotus Cars" (yay!) by rolling out new products and speeding up development.

Sounds good to me!
 
#9 ·
Lotus must return somehow somewhere to racing on the International stage - not simply marque / Vintage with prior cars. MB races Lambo races Fur races Aston races BMW races Caddy races Ford races Corvet races Volvo races Audi races Porsche races Viper races Mazda races Nissan races Toyota races [....insert name here...] races.

If Lotus does not return to Pro racing how can there ever be a future for it that claims to have any sort of grandeur ?

There was / is the expression that goes.......Win on Sunday, sell on Monday.........the actual concept is > Compete on Sunday, sell to somebody on Monday.

If Lotus does not return to racing, then their future cars might as well be simply one more brand that wishes to be a some sort of luxury car........which might eventually lead to Lotus producing an SUV..........the thought of a Lotus SUV makes me want to puke.
 
#10 ·
There is some question as to who owns the name "Lotus" when it comes to the racing car. At one time (and maybe, it still does) belong to the brother of James Hunt. Wow! Would it ever be nice to see Lotus back in the F1 circle. (I do apologize for the next statement. It is not "politically correct" on any level, but the suggestion might work). Maybe the team could be called Rotus. That might be a combination of Renault and Lotus, making the naming acceptable to everyone.
 
#11 ·
Lotus owns all of the versions now

They bought it back after the whole Dany Bahar Lotus Renault F1, and Tony Fernandes Lotus Racing/Team Lotus debacle. Bahar pulled the Lotus Racing licence from Fernandes when he joined up with Renault/Genii. Tony was pissed and got Team Lotus from Hunts brother. Lotus ended up having to buy the Team Lotus name from Fernandes and he bought Caterham, rebranding his F1 team.

On a side note, I hope Geely do a Volvo with Lotus and give them the cash to do their thing and finally get on the world stage. It would be great if Volvo dealers offered Lotus, or at least Lotus service.
I also hope that they can get back to F1 in some way, even if it's just sponsorship of a team that has a chance of winning.
 
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