Lotus CEO Seeks Government Support for UK Factory Amid Strategy Shift

The chief executive of luxury sports carmaker Lotus has called for government support for its UK factory, insisting the Chinese-owned company will not abandon its British roots.

Lotus has extended the lifespan of the £80,000 Emira petrol-engined sports car, manufactured by 900 employees at its factory in Norfolk, to continue serving the US market. This decision comes after concerns last year that its Chinese parent company, Geely, was considering closing the factory, which led to 550 job cuts in August.

Lotus stated on Tuesday its intention to increase sales in the lucrative US market, relying on sports car production from its UK facility rather than electric SUVs from its newer plant in Wuhan, China, which faces prohibitive tariffs.

“We definitely want to keep the [Norfolk] factory going and we definitely want it to be better, to grow,” said Lotus chief executive Qingfeng Feng. “We are actively discussing with the government, and it is not just on financial subsidies,” he added, also referring to infrastructure around the plant. Feng was speaking through a translator at a Financial Times conference.

The carmaker also announced plans to sell new Chinese-made hybrid SUVs in Europe and to produce a new hybrid-V8 petrol supercar, the Type 135, as part of a strategy reset. This marks a departure from previous promises to cease new petrol model production, a change attributed to electric sales lagging behind expectations.

Lotus’s UK factory, located at a former RAF base in Hethel, Norfolk, currently produces 2,000 cars annually but has the capacity for 10,000, according to Feng. He emphasized that the UK “would remain as our best option as we have already made heavy investment in the region”.

The case for the UK factory is bolstered by lower US tariffs. Lotus derives nearly two-thirds of its sales from the US. Last year, the US and UK agreed on a deal to limit tariffs on 100,000 British car exports to 10%, a rate Feng described as sustainable. In contrast, Chinese-made cars face significant barriers to entry in the US market.

Lotus was founded in 1948 by English engineer Colin Chapman, with a philosophy focused on “adding lightness” to its sports cars. Geely, owned by billionaire Li Shufu, acquired a majority stake in Lotus in 2017. Geely holds stakes in several European brands, including Aston Martin in the UK, Mercedes-Benz in Germany, and controlling stakes in Volvo and Polestar in Sweden, as well as the London Electric Vehicle Company. In China, Geely produces vehicles under its own name, Lynk & Co, and Zeekr brands.

However, Geely has undergone significant restructuring after overextending its investments, raising questions about the future of some of its struggling factories.

“Lotus was born in Britain and we will keep it that way,” Feng stated, though the company is still conducting feasibility studies for producing additional models like the Type 135 in the UK. Lotus has also engaged in discussions with a UK battery producer to localize its supply chain.

Several of Geely’s brands have been affected by the slowdown in the transition to electric cars in Europe and the rollback of pro-electric vehicle policies in the US under Donald Trump.

In response, Lotus will begin selling hybrid versions of its Eletre SUV in Europe by the end of the year. The Eletre, initially launched as a purely electric model, already has a hybrid version available in China that combines a petrol engine with a battery.

Lotus had previously projected selling 150,000 vehicles annually by 2028. However, on Tuesday, the company revised this target to 30,000 vehicles. Feng acknowledged, “I must admit the plan was aggressive.”