The story of Geely entering the Western market began a positive one. It has been showered with praise for how it handled Volvo for its first decade in charge, making it a mainstream premium player more than ever before.
But as time has gone on, there’s been little evidence to back up that early success with other western brands. Polestar, though engineering decent cars, is hugely loss-making; Volvo is undergoing painful cuts after becoming too bloated itself; and then there was the delayed EX90 launch, and even when it did come, it still wasn’t ready.
Geely’s acquisition of Lotus began brightly: Lotus was in dire straits and Geely swooped in to save the day. In the early days, things were looking up. It built gradually, invested in Hethel and the Emira and let the Lotus brand be resplendent in its sports car heritage.
But then it opened a new design centre in the Midlands, the first sign that Hethel was no longer Lotus’s raison d’être, and announced new models which were essentially Chinese-developed and built EVs. These were rushed through for the anticipated demand of luxury electric SUVs and saloons – a demand that is yet to come. In doing so, it weakened the heart of Lotus, demoting Hethel, its people and expertise.
Geely’s sizable funds haven’t been wisely placed either. It brought in executives above those already there, people who had no reverence for the brand, and opened lavish facilities including in London and Amsterdam, creating yet more disconnect between the Lotus we all know and love. This profligacy was only made worse by unachievable targets for its EV sales, which were all missed by a mile.
This latest news hit the automotive industry hard when it broke last Friday. There has clearly been back-and-forth with the UK government, Geely and Lotus, so while Geely is adamant that Lotus has a place at Hethel, time will tell.
One thing’s for sure: Geely has managed it badly and might have ultimately caused the demise of one of UK automotive’s most lauded locations.
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Unfortunately Geely have completely misjudged how much (or little!) brand equity is in Lotus. To convince prospective buyers into a £100+k Lotus EV (and out of a seriously good German rival brand), you need to offer a really amazingly good product for generation after generation after generation. You need seriously deep pockets to turn Lotus around to convince buyers, who have watched on in recent times, how Lotus has lurched from underinvested disaster to underinvested disaster. Lotus have produced just one very expensive yet flawed SUV EV and they wonder why they are not selling! Drivetrain efficiency for EV's has to be Tesla rivalling yet the Eletre is miles off. Yes you can improve it but it takes time and money. Geely seem to be to in too much of a hurry. They should have followed up the well engineered Emira with another one and also an EV variant - but they didn't. Opportunity missed there I'm afraid for buyers to dip a toe in the EV world. Making a lot of very talented and knowledgeable designers and engineers redundant at Hethel screams arrogance and naivety. They are the architects of their own downfall but the saddest part is the true Lotus is suffering as a result
Where did it all go for Autocar? Placing a headline story on their webpage behind a paywall that 99.9% of web traffic will not be able to view or read. Great advertising from a once great publication.
It all went wrong when Autocar, certainly online became a news aggregator. The Lotus story appeared in various newspapers including the once decent, but now equally click bait driven Daily Mail online.
Now two further articles whilst editorial staff wipe their bottoms trying to justify the first effort and I very much doubt anyone in the automotive industry relies on Autocar for industry news.
The only reason they would go into talks with the government is to seek grants to avoid job losses. Unfortunately, no politician in this country has a fckin clue about manufacturing so will believe any old shite they are told.