Lotus to deliver TWO new cars and an SUV in the next three years

Lotus has revealed that they will deliver two new sports cars and a Lotus SUV in the next three years as investment from new owners Geely secures Lotus’s future.

When Geely – owners of Volvo – took a controlling interest in Lotus last year, they said they wanted to “Unleash the potential of Lotus Cars”. And it looks like that’s starting to happen.

Lotus CEO, Jean-Marc Gales, has confirmed that things are on the move at Hethel, and that Lotus will deliver two new sports cars in the next two years – the first new Lotus models for almost a decade – and a Lotus SUV by 2021.

It’s thought that one of the two models will be a replacement for an existing Lotus model (Evora or Exige?) and that the second will be a new range-topping Lotus. But it seems highly unlikely that will be a replacement for the Lotus Esprit (although that could come).

Both will be delivered to the market in the next two years, and in around three years time Lotus will reveal their first SUV.

Lotus has already started recruiting to fulfil their plans, with 40 new employees already, another 60 by year end and a total of at least 300 new jobs to complete the first stage, with the two new models planned to run until 2025.

Lotus are also working on a new SUV which will be lower, wider and lighter than other SUVs, and will be built in both China and the UK, with Lotus looking to make big sales in China.

The two new sports cars are expected to push Lotus sales up past 2,000 a year, but the hopes are that the new Lotus SUV will eventually help Lotus up to 10,000 sales a year.

And, with Geely in control, this is no Dany Bahar pipe dream.