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Lotus’ success under China reflects Malaysia’s gross failure
For image info, go to https://theedgemalaysia.com/article/proton-aims-start-producing-30000-lotus-cars-china-year
KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 26, 2024: Proton which owned the British sports car manufacturer, Lotus, went bust under Malaysians.
According to Google search, on May 24, 2017, the parent company DRB-HICOM announced plans to sell a 49.9% stake in Proton to Zhejiang Geely Automobile Holdings (China).
Eventually, DRB-HICOM also sold 51% controlling-stake in Lotus to Geely, and the remaining 49% stake to Etika Automotive. The definitive agreement was in July 2017.
On Feb 1, 2023 (that is last year), about seven years later, Lotus Technology, the electric-car unit owned by China's Geely Holding Group, agreed to merge with a blank-check company in a transaction that values the combined entity at about US$5.4 billion (RM24.92 billion). (View the above video showing Lotus management celebrating their success in Nasdaq.)
Lotus was listed as US$21.24 on the Nasdaq recently.
The above video was found shared in social media with the following comments:
What do we learn from this experience ? Why, Geely, a wholly Chinese owned company, NOT ONLY successfully turned around Proton, it also revived and made a golden goose (LOTUS, whipped dead by some people ) into a multi-billion $ platinum goose listed in the world’s largest technology market !
You get monkeys to run or lead a company or a country, there won’t even be peanuts left !
Anyone care to dispute or challenge the above two comments?
And who was Proton chairman? No other than the racist former premier of 26 years, Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
Google search info on Lotus:
Lotus builds pure sports cars that fly under the radar because they're so rarely seen among the flocks of faceless cars and crossovers. The British automaker's prestige has fluctuated throughout its history, but memorable models such as the wedgelike Espirit sports car and lightweight Elise roadster represent high points. The company offers the mid-engined Emira sports car that's light on the scales, sharp around corners, and looks exotic. The electrified Evija is an exclusive hypercar that should help publicize the brand.
Thu 10 Aug 2023 00.01 BST
The British carmaker Lotus produced a record number of sports cars in the first half of 2023, as it gears up for a huge push behind sales of a new electric SUV under its Chinese owners’ expansion plans.
Lotus, which marked its 75th anniversary this year, produced 2,200 vehicles in the first six months of the year at its factory in a former second world war bomber factory at Hethel in Norfolk.
The bulk of the vehicles built were the Emira sports car, the first new Lotus product since the Chinese automotive group Geely bought a 51% stake in 2017.
The production record will not last long, as Lotus has started to deliver the first of its Eletre sports utility vehicles from a new factory in Wuhan, China, as part of a Geely plan to increase annual production to 150,000 by 2028.
Geely has invested more than £3bn in Lotus, ahead of a planned listing of its electric car business on New York’s Nasdaq stock exchange. It will float through a merger with a special purpose acquisition company (Spac) backed by LVMH, the luxury goods company controlled by the billionaire Bernard Arnault.
“We’re seeing the first green shoots of the investment coming through,” said Mike Johnstone, who was appointed as Lotus’s chief commercial officer in January. “It shows that the machine is cranking up now.”
The interior of the Lotus Eletre electric SUV on display at Brussels Expo in January 2023. Photograph: Sjoerd van der Wal/Getty Images
Lotus said its order book had grown to approximately 17,000 vehicles worldwide for the £90,000 Eletre and the £81,000 Emira, Lotus’s final petrol car. It is also producing a limited number of its all-electric Evija hypercar, which will be sold to the super-rich for £1.7m apiece.
The company is planning to reveal a new saloon car this year and a smaller SUV next year before another electric sports car, to be built at Hethel, in 2025. The expansion will require more factory space beyond the Wuhan plant, and Lotus is considering building another factory in the US.
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Johnstone said the US Inflation Reduction Act “could act as a way to encourage us to do manufacturing there”, but also acknowledged that the potential for tariffs on US imports could be a factor.
The UK is not being considered for another factory, but it will remain the base for Lotus sports cars.
“For us the UK is incredibly important,” Johnstone said. Making cars in the UK is “part of our DNA”, he added.
Lotus has long been known for producing a small number of handbuilt race cars and sports cars. Its founder, Colin Chapman, famously focused on removing any excess weight to make the cars faster and more nimble than rivals with bigger engines.
The SUV push will do the opposite, but the company said the Eletre would retain Lotus’s handling characteristics because engineers had focused on the weight distribution throughout the car.
Building an SUV has become a well-worn path for sports and luxury carmakers looking to increase sales and cater to growing markets for very expensive vehicles, particularly in Asia. Porsche, Bentley, Lamborghini, Aston Martin and even Ferrari have all released SUVs.
Johnstone said the SUV buyers were about a decade younger than a typical Lotus customer, and there were far more women.
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