Geely plans to “Unleash the Potential of Lotus Cars” as it takes a controlling stake from Proton

Chinese car giant Geely – owners of Volvo – has taken a controlling interest in Lotus Cars and a 49.9 per cent stake in Malaysia’s ailing Proton.

When Geely took control of Volvo from Ford, there were concerns that Volvo would lose its identity and deliver a range of China-built cars to milk its reputation. But nothing could be further from the reality.

In fact, Geely’s control of Volvo has seen the Swedish car maker thrive, deliver terrific new product and move from ‘almost’ premium to a real contender in the battle against the German semi-monopoly on premium cars.

Now, Geely has been out on a buying spree again and grabbed 49.9 per cent of Malaysia’s ailing Proton, but it’s also grabbed a controlling stake of 50.1 per cent in Lotus Cars.

If this had happened prior to the Geely takeover of Volvo, we’d have had visions of Lotus going the way of MG, but instead it sounds great news for Hethel and could easily see Lotus hitting the heights it always promised.

That hope is given added impetus with comments from Geely’s CFO, Daniel Donghui Li, who said of the acquisition:

Geely will unleash the potential of Lotus..,.[and] will bring Lotus into a new phase of development by expanding and accelerating the rolling out of new products and technologies.

As for Proton – which was founded as a state-owned way to kick start the Malaysian economy after independence – it’s pretty much failed as a re-badging specialist, but with Geely in the game and, with the technology its developed with Volvo, that too could see a real resurgence.