Automotive elder statesman and former General Motors chief Bob Lutz has said he gives the new Lotus recovery plan “a 60 per cent chance at least” of achieving its objective of launching five new models, moving prices towards the £100,000 bracket and finding 6000 to 7000 buyers a year.
Lutz was recently invited by Lotus CEO Dany Bahar to become a member of Lotus’s senior advisory board of industry experts, put together to advise on the running of the company.
Read the full story on all of Lotus's new models
“People keep asking me if I’m sure the new plan will work,” Lutz told Autocar, “and of course I can’t guarantee that. It’s a risk. But I’m quite certain it stands a better chance than the Lotus status quo, which for sure would eventually lead this great brand into terminal decline.”
Lutz admitted that Bahar’s unprecedented strategy of revealing five new models at once contains “a fair bit of showbiz”, and acknowledged that the cars and timings are likely to change a good deal before they hit the market. But he claimed the idea of making cars that are “fantastically desirable” is the only option and exactly the way to go.
He said Lotus’s backers, which indirectly include the Malaysian government, are taking “a pretty big gamble”. But he added, “The engineering I’ve seen so far is very good, and they’re definitely going about it the right way. The money they’re spending on each model is only a fraction of what we’d have spent at GM on similar projects.”
Join the debate
Add your comment
Re: 'Lotus - 60% chance of success'
What's Sam Allardyce got to do with it?...hehe
Re: 'Lotus - 60% chance of success'
60% chance of success coming from the man who knows first hand how to dilute and starve a brand for 2 whole decades and cancel numerous models. This is the man who said "Saab is a luxury we (GM) can no longer afford." This is the same Saab company who's current business plan was scrutinized by the Swedish government, the European Investment Bank and finally approved by the EU with far higher odds than a 60% chance of success. Saab the company that many are unsure if they will return to profit in 2012. So the same man that wrote Saab off back in 2009, gives Lotus a 'fair chance' of their plan working?
Hell that annoys me immensely. Will this blethering idiot finally just sod off and retire. He's just a fat, old has been with a big mouth.
Re: 'Lotus - 60% chance of success'
60% chance of it being a success.
40% chance of it falling on its ass.
90% of statistics are made up on the spot.
Hmm.