Lotus unveils its last petrol engine and goes on the hunt for Porsche

• Lotus introduces Emira, its last fossil fuel car
• British racing brand starts ambitious expansion
• Plans to add sedans and SUVs to its range

HETHEL, England, July 6 (Reuters) – Lotus unveiled its last gasoline car on Tuesday, a milestone in the British sports car brand’s journey to becoming an all-electric and much larger automaker by the end of the decade.

Lotus and its Chinese owner Geely want to transform the now tiny company, which produces around 1,500 sports cars annually, into an electric powerhouse that also produces tens of thousands of high-end sedans and sport utility vehicles (SUVs).

“We recognize that we need to increase our revenue and the sports car segment is limited,” said Lotus CEO Matt Windle to Reuters. “That is why we would like to offer a large number of Lotus products across the entire range for different people in different phases of life.”

The expansion plan is not dissimilar to that of the sports car brand Porsche from Volkswagen (VOWG_p.DE), which has expanded strongly since the introduction of the Cayenne SUV in 2002. Porsche sold more than 90,000 Cayennes last year, by far its bestseller with sales of its most famous car, the 911, almost triple.

The Lotus project begins with the Emira, which it unveiled at its Hethel plant at an old air force base in the east of England, where it is planned to produce around 4,800 of the sports cars annually – with the capacity to produce more when demand is high.

The Emira, which will start at around 60,000 pounds ($ 83,000), is the first new gasoline Lotus model in more than a decade, but it will be the last to run on fossil fuels.

Lotus designed it to look like a sibling of its Evija, an electric “hypercar” that will have production of just 130 cars – it’s the 130th model in Lotus’ 73-year history – and for about two Million pounds ($ 2.8 million) each.

Russell Carr, chief designer at Lotus, pointed to Emira and Evija side by side in the automaker’s studio and said he was looking forward to adding “some of that fairy dust” to the company’s new “lifestyle” models.

Geely bought a 51 percent stake in Lotus in 2017, ending years of financial struggles for the company under various previous owners that had forced it to postpone some new models.

Lotus is now part of a growing empire of the Chinese automaker, which owns Sweden’s Volvo Cars, and is the largest shareholder in German Daimler (DAIGn.DE).

DYNAMIC GROWTH POTENTIAL

Geely founder Li Shufu has set himself the goal of creating a global company based on brands that share technology from a Chinese supplier base under unique skins. He left the details of how brands implement this strategy largely in the hands of local managers.

Geely and the other Lotus shareholder, Etika Automotive of Malaysia, are investing more than $ 2 billion in expanding their production facilities, including a new plant in the Chinese city of Wuhan, where the first new Lotus lifestyle models will be built. Continue reading

“Lotus has dynamic growth potential,” said Sam Fiorani, vice president of global vehicle forecasting for AutoForecast Solutions. “But you have to be careful not to water down the Lotus name because if your new models are not considered worthy of the name, it could damage the brand worldwide.”

Head of Design Carr said that being part of a major automotive company gave Lotus access to technology that it could have been hard to come by on its own – such as the dashboard touchscreen in the Emira.

And as an allusion to the changed consumer habits, the new sports car will have a premiere for Lotus: cup holders.

Managing Director Windle also said Geely has agreed to a Lotus request that its new SUVs and sedans be built on a platform developed by the British company – rather than sharing the basics with Volvo or the all-electric Polestar.

Windle said this would allow Lotus to continue serving as a supplier and engineer for other automakers, which it has been doing for years with its Lotus Engineering division. He said several automakers have shown interest in the Lotus EV platform.

Geely wants Lotus Engineering to be a standalone technology company within its broader group of companies, pursuing its own self-drive, smart and electric mobility technologies.

Lotus is currently developing an electric sports car platform for the Alpine brand of the French company in partnership with Renault (RENA.PA), which will also be available to other automobile manufacturers.

Windle admits that branching out into SUVs and sedans carries risks.

“It’s a challenge and it goes away from what we’ve been used to historically,” he said. “But then I would argue that our business case has not worked historically either.”

($ 1 = 0.7234 pounds)

Additional coverage from Paul Lienert in Detroit; Adaptation by David Clarke

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