A new report from Autocar will come as a surprise to anyone who has followed Lotus’ history. According to the publication, the storied British sports car maker has been told by owner Geely to prepare its Hethel plant for closure after 59 years of production and move to the US, said a source.
The move was aimed at shoring up production after the company was hard-hit by a perfect storm of circumstances as a result of president Donald Trump coming back into power. Production of the Emira sports car has been halted since mid-May as Lotus managed the fallout of higher tariffs, and while the Eletre SUV was supposed to widen the target market and guard against such instabilities, the 100% tariff on Chinese-made EVs has put paid to that, too. Sales of the car in the US have since stopped, it was reported.
In response, Lotus’ higher-ups have been mulling moving production to eradicate tariff barriers, with CEO Feng Qingfeng saying during the firm’s first quarter earnings call last Wednesday: “We believe that localisation is a feasible plan. We are trying to leverage our US strategy to catch up the losses due to the tariff hike.”
Feng added that the company has had an “in-depth discussion with our strategic partners” to produce cars in the US, although he did not specify who those partners were. Autocar speculated that the company could move some production, such as the Emira, to the under-utilised South Carolina plant of Geely’s other subsidiary Volvo.
Since Autocar reached out, however, Lotus has issued a statement saying that there were no plans to close the factory. “The UK is the heart of the Lotus brand – home to our sports car manufacturing, global design centre, motorsport operations, and Lotus Engineering,” it said. “It is also our largest commercial market in Europe.”
It did, however, continue to state that it is “exploring strategic options to enhance efficiency and ensure global competitiveness” in an evolving market. “We have invested significantly in R&D and operations in the UK, over the past six years. Lotus remains committed to the UK, and its customers, employees, dealers, suppliers, as well as its proud British heritage.”
The statement came after the British government told Lotus it was willing to offer support to protect local jobs, Autocar cited Financial Times. Business secretary Jonathan Reynolds met with company officials yesterday and was assured that “they are committed to their UK operations and have no plans to close their Hethel plant,” The Guardian reported a department for business and trade spokesperson as saying.
Persistent losses have left Lotus scrambling to cut costs, including laying off 270 workers at Hethel in April; the company is also set to close its expensive new headquarters in Clerkenwell, London just months after it opened. Its flagship store in Park Lane, meanwhile, has been transferred to the HR Owen dealer group, understood to be another cost-cutting measure.
The beleaguered carmaker has yet to make a profit since Geely purchased it from Proton and DRB-Hicom back in 2017. Its move to electrification, in particular with more mass-market electric models like the Eletre and the Emeya sedan, has yet to pay off, with Feng saying that “in recent years, premium brand BEV penetration does not meet our expectation.”
Lotus’ sales fell 42% in the first quarter of the year, the first decline since the two “lifestyle” cars were introduced. Aside from sales halting for the Eletre in the US, the company has also seen falling demand in Europe and China, with deliveries of the two models down 31% to just 719 units in the first three months of 2025. As a result, net loss climbed to US$183 million (RM770 million), while mounting debts hit US$3.3 billion (RM13.9 billion).
In response, Lotus is pivoting hard towards “Hyper Hybrids”, mirroring a move seen elsewhere in Geely’s sprawling network of brands. Plug-in hybrid versions of the Eletre will go on sale from the first quarter of next year onwards, starting in China. Meanwhile, the company is considering a hybrid Emira to expand the lifespan of the “final mainstream combustion engine Lotus two-seater,” having postponed its electric successor indefinitely. A V8 model is also being considered, as was previously reported.
It’s safe to say that Lotus has overestimated its growth considerably. It predicted last year that it would be building 150,000 cars annually by 2028, most of those being a new Porsche Macan-rivalling Type 134 electric SUV that was set to launch in 2027. However, that car has also been postponed due to the global EV slowdown and Lotus has struggled to pay off Geely’s investment, which has totalled £2 billion (RM11.6 billion). Deliveries last year reached just 12,134.
