Trading hands more frequently than some people change cars, lightweight sports car expert Lotus has been sold again. This time to Geely, the Chinese automaker who also owns Volvo.
Lotus has been owned by Malaysian automaker Proton since 1996. Under Proton, Lotus moved from making the front-drive Elan and the ageing Esprit to building an all-new Elise and a handful of successful (and increasingly light) derivatives of that car. That includes the track-only 2-Eleven and
the 340R.
Before 11 years under Proton, the UK-based automaker was owned by Bugatti for three years, and by General Motors for seven years before that.
Last year, Lotus turned a profit for the first time in decades. Now Geely has purchased 51 percent of the company. Etika Automotive, a Malaysian company, has taken the other 49 percent. The sale includes Lotus cars, as well as Lotus Engineering.
Jean-Marc Gales, CEO of Lotus since 2014, will keep his job in the top spot with the company. Geely has appointed their Executive VP and CFO Daniel Donghui Li as Chair of the Lotus board and is adding two other Geely execs to the board. Etika will have two board members.
Lotus sales are up 10 percent in the first half of 2017. That's thanks to a flurry of special models and the Evora GT430 - the fastest Lotus ever.
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