The future of Lotus’s UK factory Hethel is under review, as its Chinese owner, Geely, takes drastic action to fix the loss-making British sports car brand.

 

The car maker is trapped in a perfect storm, buffeted by tariffs that have inflated the cost of UK sports car exports to the United States, and exorbitant American import duties on its Chinese-built lifestyle EVs that make sales commercially impossible. Lotus is also grappling with inconsistent electric car demand, and growing the brand from a tiny customer base.

 

Geely has pumped billions of investment into Lotus, funding the clean-sheet electric technology that underpins the Eletre SUV and Emeya sports saloon and a factory in Wuhan, China, with a 150,000-unit capacity. It has also invested £100 million in its Norfolk site, yielding new production lines to build the petrol-powered Emira sports car and pure electric Evija hypercar.