In the automotive world, Lotus remains somewhat of an enigma. To motorsport fans, the name is revered, belonging to one of the most famous teams in Formula One history. The company’s efforts to build and sell road cars, however, make for a less glorious tale.
In its early years, Lotus cars were renowned for their light weight and innovative construction, some of the first to make great use of materials like fibreglass. As a result, several models are today regarded as classics.
Lotus never made much money, however, and at the time of its founder’s early death, the company was in serious trouble. From there, the story became one of Lotus passing between larger manufacturers while never really achieving sustained success.
Today’s owners have tried completely reinventing Lotus, abandoning its long-held values of small, lightweight cars for electric power and a much more upmarket customer base. The signs are, however, that this approach could yet change again, so what next for Lotus?
So who or what is Lotus?
The history of Lotus is wrapped up in motor racing, most famously in Formula One. Company founder Colin Chapman was a fairly competent young driver in the 1950s, but he soon realised he was better as a team manager and car designer.
Chapman built his first racing car in 1948 and established Lotus Engineering in 1952, initially building sports racing cars. Lotus made its F1 debut in 1958, and progress was swift – six drivers’ world championships and seven constructors’ titles followed from 1963 to 1978.
Like Ferrari, the road car business initially came about as a means of funding the racing programmes, with Chapman building road cars in a new factory in Hertfordshire. The early cars were aimed more at amateur racers, with the first significant road machines being the Mark VI and then the Lotus Seven, a small open two-seat roadster and a direct predecessor of today’s Caterham Seven. It was offered as a kit for owners to put together themselves, which avoided purchase tax.
The 1960s saw a number of classic Lotus models, topped by the Lotus Elan roadster of 1962 and the Europa coupé, launched in 1966 with a mid-mounted Renault engine.
Lotus road products extended beyond its own cars, the company most famously creating a high-performance version of the 1960s Ford Cortina – the Lotus Cortina became the preferred mount for many saloon car racers. The commercial successes of this and other projects allowed Lotus to purchase a former RAF airfield at Hethel in Norfolk in 1966, building a new factory with its own test track, where the company is still based today.
The first Lotus to be sold fully-built was a 2+2 coupé version of the Elan, marking the start of an attempt to move upmarket. This led to the creation of one of the company’s most famous cars, the mid-engined Lotus Esprit, helped by a starring role in two James Bond films.
While its cars became cult classics, Lotus struggled to make money and, by 1980, annual production had dropped from 1,200 to fewer than 400 cars. A deal to relaunch the company in the US staved off collapse but then Chapman died of a heart attack in late 1982, aged just 54.
It was then revealed that Lotus was implicated in Inland Revenue efforts to trace huge UK government subsidies lost in the DeLorean project, a Northern Ireland start-up that collapsed in scandal. Lotus had designed the chassis for the car, and it was suggested that had Chapman was highly likely to have been convicted of being part of a fraud if he had not died.
Lotus was again saved from bankruptcy by an investment by the founder of British Car Auctions, David Wickins. He struck an agreement with Inland Revenue and persuaded further investors to get involved, and would later be described as the saviour of Lotus.
Wickins recruited rising young designer Peter Stevens to update the Lotus range, with new cars including an all-new Elan and the Elise, but he also realised much more money would be needed and looked for a new buyer, starting a period of international owners for Lotus.
The first was US giant General Motors, which took over in 1986. The most visible results of its ownership were the Lotus Carlton, which turned a mild-mannered company car saloon into a supercar beater, and the Vauxhall VX220, which was a reworked Lotus Elise. But after just seven years, GM sold Lotus to an Italian businessman who also owned Bugatti, who eventually sold it onto Malaysian manufacturer Proton.
The Proton ownership lasted to 2017, when 51% of Lotus was acquired by Chinese giant Geely, which also owns a controlling stake in Volvo. The rest of the company remained with Proton, and has led to the formation of a subsidiary company called Lotus Technology to produce electric vehicles.
In 2021, Lotus announced all of its cars would be upmarket EVs by 2028, with plans to boost annual production from 1,500 to more than 10,000. But things have not worked out that way so far. Due to a lack of enthusiasm for expensive sports cars and now the threat of tariffs in the prime market of America, Lotus has recently been forced to deny that it plans to close its Hethel factory and move sports car production to the US (its EVs are already made in China).
Lotus sales were down more than 40% in the first part of 2025, and the firm has reacted to struggling growth in top-end EVs by a partial return to petrol engines, developing a so-called ‘hyper hybrid’ system – the first car equipped with this system is likely to appear in coming months.
What models does Lotus have and what else is coming?
The Lotus model range has undergone major change in recent years, re-aligned for an electric future. Currently, it stretches to three models, all launched since 2022 when the long-running Exige, Elise and Evora models were discontinued.
First of the newcomers was the Emira, which arrived in early 2022 as possibly the last traditional Lotus. The two-seater is powered by either a rear-mounted 360hp Mercedes-AMG petrol engine or a 400hp version provided by Toyota. It’s a rapid sports car with some reviewers even describing the more powerful variant as a small supercar.
The Eletre, launched in 2023, is a clear sign of Lotus’ new direction, being both a large, luxury electric SUV. It’s completely different to anything previously produced by the company, and has earned praise for its potency and handling, though less so for its price and running costs.
The newest car in the Lotus family is the Emeya, a high-performance electric saloon which, alongside the Eletre, breaks another company tradition, both cars made not in the Hethel factory but in China. Some reviewers have baulked at the fact that this car, a rival to the Porsche Taycan, is large and heavy, the exact opposite of a traditional Lotus, but again it scores for its levels of performance and comfort.
Current Lotus range on our Expert Rating Index
There is also the ultra-high-performance Lotus Eviya, which is a 2,000hp electric coupé described as a hypercar. Pricing is more than £2 million, and media reviews are few and far between, so it’s not a car we cover here at The Car Expert.
These new cars have not, however, so far shown the volume increase that Lotus planned. As a result, the company is set to launch a plug-in hybrid version of the Eletre at the end of 2025 – the so-called ‘hyper hybrid’. Assuming it provides a sales boost, we can expect a plug-in hybrid version of the Emeya saloon to follow.
Where can I try a Lotus car?
Lotus is a specialist manufacturer and as such has only a small number of outlets – 15 of them in the UK, including just one each in Scotland and Northern Ireland, and none at all in Wales.
A flagship showroom was opened in Mayfair, central London in 2023 but just a year later the running of it was transferred from Lotus to dealer group HR Owen.
What makes Lotus different to the rest?
The Lotus ‘difference’ has largely disappeared in recent times – the company still trades to a great extent on its glorious motorsport history, but with the last victory as long ago as 1987 and the factory team closing in 1994, it’s a history mostly kept alive by Chapman’s son Clive and his Classic Team Lotus heritage operation.
The signature Lotus quality evident in its road cars has always been their small size and light weight, but this has now been abandoned with the latest highly expensive, large and heavy electric cars. Lotus now needs to find a new image to differentiate itself from its rivals.
A Lotus fact to impress your friends
While Colin Chapman will always be recognised as the driving force behind Lotus, he could not have founded the company without two brothers, Michael and Nigel Allen. They gave Chapman the use of their extensive workshop and carried out a great deal of development on the early Lotus cars.
While a graphic on the Lotus badge composed of four letters, A, C, B and C, has always been credited as the initials of Anthony Colin Bruce Chapman, some sources claim that he reputedly told the brothers that the letters stood for ‘Colin Chapman and the Allen Brothers’.
Nigel Allen died in February 2025, the last of the original ‘gang of four’ that founded Lotus.
Summary
Lotus has always had a chequered history which, while founder Colin Chapman was alive, at times became murky. But after his death, it settled into a scenario constantly repeated across the automotive industry, of a niche manufacturer struggling to turn a sustained profit.
The latest route to that solution from the current ownership has seen Lotus abandon just about all of its DNA, nimble and light sports cars making way for heavy and expensive very upmarket electric saloons and SUVs. Whether this will eventually prove to be the right move remains to be seen – the signs so far are not exactly encouraging…
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