Currently reading: Chinese car maker Geely buys majority stake in Lotus
Geely completes its majority acquisition of Lotus; boss Jean-Marc Gales stays in charge

Geely, the Chinese car maker that owns Volvo, London Taxi Company and Lynk&Co, has completed its purchase of a majority stake in Lotus.

It now owns a stake of 51% in the British sports car maker, while 49% is held by Etika, a Malaysian automotive group.

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Lotus boss Jean-Marc Gales stays in charge of the company, while a number of appointments have been made to the Lotus board.

Geely’s chief financial officer Daniel Donghui Li is board chairman, while chief technology officer Feng Qing Feng and vice president of international business Nathan Yu Ning also sit on the panel. There are also two board members from Etika. 

Jean marc gales iv 005

Donghui Li said: “With the transaction completion we now look forward to working with our partners to develop the Lotus brand into a globally competitive brand and a well-recognised leader in the sports car market. “We are extremely confident that Lotus will go above and beyond the expectations of the automotive industry and consumer base in the near future.”

Gales added: “Following a successful business turnaround, the Lotus brand has never been in a stronger position and we are now perfectly positioned for growth. We are producing the best cars in the company’s history and are currently developing next generation of sports luxury vehicles which will continue to demonstrate the Lotus brand values of class-leading vehicle dynamics, light weighting, styling and aerodynamics by leveraging Geely Holding’s global strengths and resources.”

In the first half of 2017, Lotus entered into a positive cash flow situation with sales rising by 10% year-on-year in the first half.

It has also introduced a number of models including the fastest Lotus yet, the Evora GT430.

The acquisition is part of a deal announced in May between Geely and Lotus' former owner, Proton. The deal means that alongside a majority stake in Lotus, Geely also owns a 49% stake in Proton. The remaining stake in Proton belongs to Malaysian automotive firm DRB-Hicom.

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Alongside the Lotus board members' announcement, Geely and DRB-Hicom also announced its Proton board. Most notable on this board are ex-Skoda boss Winfried Vahland and Yu Ning, Geely's international business boss, who also sits on the Lotus board.

The new CEO of Proton is Li Chunrong, who replaces Datuk Ahmad Fuaad Kenali. Chunrong said: “I was nominated by both DRB-Hicom and Geely Holding to turn Proton around and I believe the Malaysian car brand will soon be the number one domestic brand and a leading ASEAN brand.

"To make this vision happen, Proton now has access to the global synergies, expertise and financial support it needs from the Geely family. I firmly believe that Proton’s best days are ahead of it,” he commented.

Related stories: 

Lotus Evora GT430 Sport revealed 

Lotus Exige V6 Cup review 

Lotus Evora review 

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geed 29 September 2017

Lotus now have access to

Lotus now have access to volvos 2.0l i4 petrol and hybrid systems. They no longer need Toyotas i4 and can phase it out. If lotus want a 500hp plus range topper would they be happy with just 4cylinders? Could we get a new 6 or 8 cylinder development to satisfy lotus high end and volvos North American market aspirations? Does not matter what output volvo claim with the 4 cyl hybrid systems, yanks like big na engines. And volvos engine range must be hurting them in the us.
wmb 1 October 2017

geed wrote:

geed wrote:

Lotus now have access to volvos 2.0l i4 petrol and hybrid systems. They no longer need Toyotas i4 and can phase it out. If lotus want a 500hp plus range topper would they be happy with just 4cylinders? Could we get a new 6 or 8 cylinder development to satisfy lotus high end and volvos North American market aspirations? Does not matter what output volvo claim with the 4 cyl hybrid systems, yanks like big na engines. And volvos engine range must be hurting them in the us.

 

While Volvo, under Ford, did turn to Yamaha to produce/tune a V8 for them, most of what I've seen and read in the Us is that their engines have adequate power for 90-95% of what they are called upon to do. And that is in regard to the big 90 series! I guess the question becomes: With the acquisition of Lotus, will that impact Volvo and Polstar?  With Polstar being Volvo's tuning arm, from a marketing and sales perspective, they might move more high out put Volvo's by saying that they have "go fast parts" by the storied Lotus, then they might with relatively new Polstar! The "Engineer by Lotus" badge on the back of a Volvo, may have more street cred (at least here in the US), then Polstar does at the time being!    

wmb 1 October 2017

geed wrote:

geed wrote:

Lotus now have access to volvos 2.0l i4 petrol and hybrid systems. They no longer need Toyotas i4 and can phase it out. If lotus want a 500hp plus range topper would they be happy with just 4cylinders? Could we get a new 6 or 8 cylinder development to satisfy lotus high end and volvos North American market aspirations? Does not matter what output volvo claim with the 4 cyl hybrid systems, yanks like big na engines. And volvos engine range must be hurting them in the us.

 

While Volvo, under Ford, did turn to Yamaha to produce/tune a V8 for them, most of what I've seen and read in the Us is that their engines have adequate power for 90-95% of what they are called upon to do. And that is in regard to the big 90 series! I guess the question becomes: With the acquisition of Lotus, will that impact Volvo and Polstar?  With Polstar being Volvo's tuning arm, from a marketing and sales perspective, they might move more high out put Volvo's by saying that they have "go fast parts" by the storied Lotus, then they might with relatively new Polstar! The "Engineer by Lotus" badge on the back of a Volvo, may have more street cred (at least here in the US), then Polstar does at the time being!    

MarkII 29 September 2017

@Spanner

Agreed - beat me to be first to post :)
MarkII 29 September 2017

Good news

It's a pity ownership of Lotus remains abroad but Geely's purchase of Volvo rescued a famous marque from the brink of exctinction and enabled them to develop some interesting & competitive new models - who'd have thought that 10 years ago?