Lotus boss CONFIRMS ‘Made in China’ SUV on the way

Lotus boss, Jean-Marc Gales, has confirmed a Lotus SUV will be built in China with joint venture partner Goldstar. Plans to sell 5,000 SUVs a year.

We’re not entirety sure Colin Chapman would be on-side, but whatever Lotus’s founder might have thought, had he still been around, Lotus are taking the plunge in to the SUV market, in partnership with China’s Goldstar, with a lightweight SUV aimed at the Porsche Macan.

It’s a bold target for a struggling specialist sports car maker from rural Norfolk (although a rather more realistic one than the last ‘Lotus Future’ plan), but it is fully backed by Proton (Lotus owners) and the first prototype will arrive in the next 12 months.

It will be built on a steel and aluminium platform created with Proton and has a target weight of around 1500kg, which should see it comfortably lighter than SUVs like the Macan.

Lotus boss Jean-Marc Gales, said:

The new car would respect the Lotus tradition of lightweight, dynamically capable cars. All SUVs are big and fairly heavy. We want to build a car that is lighter and faster – a true Lotus.

Not surprisingly, Lotus plans to price their SUV below the Macan – which shouldn’t be too hard with Porsche’s healthy margins and the Lotus being built in China – and are aiming to sell it mainly in Asia and Europe, with expectations it will account for half of Lotus sales by 2020.

It seems wrong that Lotus are building an SUV, but everyone thought the same when Porsche did it with the Cayenne. If Lotus get it right, it could be the key to future profitability and secure the future of Lotus sports cars in the process.

A Lotus SUV is therefore a plan that’s very hard to argue against.