Lotus considers its Hethel factory in Norfolk to be the best location for production of its upcoming Emira hybrid and Type 135 sports cars.
Dismissing recent reports that the firm could shut down its historic UK headquarters as a “rumour”, Group Lotus CEO Feng Qinfeng has indicated that the site is tipped to play an increasingly important role in the company’s revamped global strategy.
Speaking at the Financial Times Future of the Car summit in London, Feng acknowledged that Hethel has “seen a lot of challenges” in recent years, pointing particularly to the impact of the new import tariffs in the US market, which takes 60-65% of all Emiras produced in the UK.
Lotus cited those tariffs as a leading factor in its decision, last summer, to cut 550 UK jobs – roughly 40% of its workforce in the country – as part of a move to stem increasing losses.
That was the latest in a succession of workforce reductions at Lotus over the last two years, and came as speculation mounted over the ongoing viability of the Hethel plant – with sources suggesting company bosses had even gone so far as to sign off on the factory’s decommissioning.
But today, Feng said Lotus plans to “definitely keep the UK factory running”, and said it could even dramatically boost vehicle output there as it adds two new combustion-powered sports cars to its line-up.
As part of a significantly reworked global strategy, Lotus is shifting its mid-term focus away from slow-selling luxury electric cars to performance hybrids, with the long-mooted Type 135 sports car now to be powered by a hybridised V8 – rather than a pure-electric powertrain as earlier planned – and a new PHEV version of the Emira inbound.
Lotus released the first official image of the incoming V8 Typer 135 on Tuesday
Lotus had earlier said it was “likely” to build the two sports cars in Europe, and Feng has suggested that Hethel is the most likely venue because of the lower US tariffs imposed on UK-built cars, the skills and expertise already established at the plant, and the available capacity it still has.
Feng said the imposition of the US tariffs last year had a huge impact on Hethel, which sends most of its output stateside, but said “it would be irrational to simply raise the price to tackle the problem […] and we had no solution but to temporarily shut down the factory”.
But he pointed to the fact that Lotus parent company Geely has invested more than £1bn in Hethel’s transformation as testament to its commitment to the plant, and added: “We definitely want to keep the factory going, and we definitely want to be better – to grow.”