Just over a year ago, Lotus announced the retirement of their long running fleet that encompassed their popular Elise, Evora and Exige supercars. With a limited edition production run of all three now completed, their attentions are turning to their future moves, starting with their Eletre model, which marks their move into electric powered vehicles.
Total sales of their previous line, which began with the Elise back in 1996, stand at around the 55,000 mark. However, speaking to the press this week, Lotus boss Matt Windle has laid out just how crucial sales of Eletre, along with the Evija and Emira, will be to ensure their continued success in the future.
"We want to be a proper, serious global player," says Windle, adding that there has already been lots of encouraging noises coming from Chinese markets, saying that the arrival of the Eletre has gone down well in this territory as they are seeking "Quality, quality and investment in quality".
However, Windle has pulled no punches saying that in order to realise their future objectives, they need to sell tens of thousands of the new models, adding that "If you want Lotus sports cars to be around forever, we've got to make money."
Now, when you consider that their overall sales in 2021 (1,710) were their highest since 2011 - for comparison, that's sometimes what say, Lamborghini or Ferrari can take in one quarter of the year for some of their latest models - that's a big task for them to pull off, whatever way you look at it.
But it's clear from Lotus' investment that they are serious about hitting such lofty heights; their workforce has doubled in the last five years, and they have also spent £100m on improvements and updates to their production plant in Norfolk, automating a number of their processes to boot.
Time will tell exactly how this new chapter for Lotus goes, but Windle has also said that one clear ethos will always be at the focus of everything going forward: "The sports cars are the heart of the brand."
We look forward to hopefully getting the new Lotus Eletre, Evija and Emira available to take out on track here at Driving Experience. In the meantime, you can book from our current range of Lotus Driving Experiences at UK wide venues, from available dates on our Lotus Events Calendar or by purchasing one of our Gift Vouchers.
