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On the heels after local Volvo S90s will now be Chinese-made, Lotus brand will also be made in a Geely plant in China. Not surprising, both Volvo and Lotus are owned by Geely --------------- BEIJING/SHANGHAI: The Chinese owner of Lotus plans to start producing the British sports car brand in China for the first time with the opening of a new 9 billion yuan (US$1.3 billion) factory in Wuhan city, company job advertisements and government documents showed. The previously unreported plans are Zhejiang Geely Holding Group's first move to shake up the British brand since its purchase of a majority stake in 2017. The move is in line with Geely's ambitions to build more up-market cars and throw off its reputation for copycat designs and shoddy quality. For Lotus, it could mean greater production volumes and new models such as SUVs to boost sales. "For Geely, going high-end can help it take more market share," said Alan Kang, Shanghai based analyst at LMC Automotive. "Geely needs to do that to better compete with global brands." Lotus cars are currently built in Norfolk, England. Geely and Lotus said in a joint statement that while Norfolk was Lotus's manufacturing home, a key part of the firm's strategy to revive the brand was expanding the brand's manufacturing footprint globally. "Details on additional locations and models will be confirmed in due course," the company said in an e-mail to Reuters. The planning authority of Hubei province, whose capital is Wuhan, last month approved Geely's plans for the plant. The factory will be able to manufacture 150,000 cars annually, according to a document posted on the authority's website. The Wuhan Development Zone, where the factory will be based, said in a statement posted on its website last month that production at the plant would include "Geely's Lotus project". The Wuhan Development Zone did not respond to Reuters' request for comment. The documents did not say when the plant would start operations. The facility is approved to build all-electric battery cars, electric hybrids as well as combustion engine cars like Lotuses. Job advertisements on Geely's website show the automaker is looking to fill at least 20 Wuhan-based roles for the Lotus project. LUXURY AMBITIONS While is not clear what portion of the new Chinese production line would be devoted to the British brand, greater production volumes would be consistent with Geely's stated ambition to grow the market for Lotus by broadening its line-up. Geely sold only 1,630 Lotuses globally in 2018. Lotus currently produces models such as the Evora and Elise. James Bond famously drove a Lotus Esprit in 1977's "The Spy Who Loved Me", and Lotus once boasted a Formula One team until it was sold to Renault for just one pound in 2015. But in a major break with the past, two sources familiar with the matter said Lotus would likely make luxury SUVs instead of sports cars during the Wuhan plant's initial phase. One of the sources said Geely wanted to emulate premium carmakers like Porsche , whose luxury SUV models were selling well in China. The share of luxury SUVs in China's overall passenger car market grew from 4.07 percent in 2014 to 5.01 percent in 2018, according to data from consultancy J.D. Power. Geely has forecast flat sales this year after the Chinese auto market contracted for the first time in more than two decades in 2018. The company has made waves in the auto world with its US$9 billion purchase of a stake in Germany's Daimler AG and its US$1.8 billion acquisition of Sweden's Volvo. It bought 51 percent of Lotus from Malaysian automaker Proton in 2017. Read more at https://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/business/british-lotus-cars-to-be-made-in-china-at-new-geely-plant-11133856

Did you know that Kia built a convertible in the 90's? For those who don't, it sold around 1,000 of these Kia Elans which was meant for the domestic market. This was during the time when it was still pretty small and had to rely on other manufacturers to base their cars on. Yes, these Kia Elans came after Lotus were done with the slow selling, front-wheel drive Elans and they sold the rights to Kia. Not much was changed visually other than a taller ride height and unique tailights. They also replaced the Isuzu 1.6-litre turbocharged engine that produced 162bhp with its own naturally-aspirated 1.8-litre 150bhp engine. For those of you who are keen on getting one here, you probably won't get a chance since they are all in left-hand drive only. However, there are a still a couple of the nearly 4,000 Elans that was produced by Lotus, still on the road here.

Now that Lotus have announced their latest, if not greatest models I have noticed that all of the look strikingly similar to one another. Is it just me? I don't think so. I think you readers would too. What I do know is that I wrote about the Elite, mentioning that it looked Maserati-ish and it had a touch of the recently departed Toyota Celica from some angles. The thing was at that point of time, Lotus only released details on that one car. Now that it has announced the new Elise, Esprit, Elan and the Eterne as well, I now noticed that all the cars look the same. Some may have an extra door or two, some may have a longer rear end that would accommodate a larger V8 engine (Esprit), some may be entry level but after looking at the photos of of especially the Elite, Elan and Elise I find that they actually look very similar. Too similar to be exact. Of course some may argue that the current Elise and Exige look the same. They should as they are the same car. One with a roof, one with a removable targa roof. The Evora looks similar, but it has a longer wheelbase and slightly different front and rear design cues so you will never mistake it for the smaller Elise/Exige models. The unpopular Europa also looked like a proper Lotus, but didn't look similar until you couldn't tell one Lotus from the other. It looks like things have changed. If I didn't look at the number plates, I may have not bothered to tell the difference from one new Lotus to another. I suppose while the designs are cutting edge and modern, I also mentioned that the Elite looked like a Celica; ergo very Japanese looking. Like origami. And therefore very non-European? This is the question I now ask. Are the new Lotus too similar and not as unique as the older, current models? If so then this new business model of high end, high tech cars may not work. Uniqueness sells supercars and sports cars. So far the Lotuses look good if it stands on its own, but five similar looking models on the motor show stand? I doubt it. Of course we can hope that these new Lotuses will handle lovingly well. That fact may be unique enough to most.