Lotus sells too few cars, 200 people are laid off
Lotus built far too few cars in 2022. No wonder, since the only model on the market was the Emira. Production was down more than 60 per cent year-on-year, so heads have to roll at Hethel in the UK.
How weird can it get? Lotus enjoyed another record year in 2021 with 1,566 cars sold, only to announce a year and a half later that 200 jobs would be lost.
Lotus suffered a significant loss in 2022
Sports car production was just 567 cars last year. This was not only due to the disappearance of the Elise, Exige and Evora, but also to problems with the supply of spare parts. Lotus suffered a loss of 145 million pounds (equivalent to 167 million euros).
According to Lotus, 2022 was just a bad year and the manufacturer is reporting records again for 2023. Nevertheless, it is reorganized. Administrative and engineering jobs are particularly at risk.
On the other hand, the Chinese parent company Geely is investing more than 500 million pounds (around 567 million euros) in the Lotus research and development center.
Autovisie positive via electric eletre
In the past twelve months, Lotus built only the Emira. In the meantime, the first customer examples of the electric hypercar Evija have also been delivered and series production of the Eletre is starting.
Autovisie has already driven the all-electric sports SUV and was very impressed. Watch the review by test editor Dries van den Elzen on the Autovisie YouTube channel.