What's this, more Lotus good news? Seems to be! While unconfirmed at the moment,
Autocar is reporting
that DRB-Hicom will sell to Geely - owners of Volvo - 49.9 per cent of Proton and 51 per cent in Lotus.
Any excuse to use these pics...
The move is expected to be sorted in July, with the main focus for Geely being access to the South East Asian market through Proton. But PistonHeads is rather more interested in Lotus, what with the cars division recently back in profit - the arrival of Geely surely has to be a positive move.
"Reflecting our experience accumulated through Volvo Car's revitalisation, we also aim to unleash the full potential of Lotus Cars and bring it into a new phase of development by expanding and accelerating the rolling out of new products and technologies" is the view of Daniel Donghui Li, executive vice-president of Geely. Now it wouldn't be a good press sound bite without promising the world, but when you look at Volvo's progress under Geely since 2010 there's reason to be optimistic: the cars still retain unique Volvo features, though now with the technology and powertrains to be more competitive than ever. Look at the latest XC90, for example.
How far off is a new Elise with fresh investment?
As mentioned, the deal is yet to be formally announced. No harm in speculating on what a Geely takeover could mean though, is there? The
SUV
will surely be a commercial priority for both parties, with Geely in the financial position to give that project a boost. As for the sports car side of things, a new Elise has been in discussion for a while. And the "new technologies" could presumably see an investment in powertrains; the Toyota engines have been around for a while now!
This sounds like very big news for Lotus, with a myriad of possibilities going forward - we'll be sure to keep you posted as the story develops.
Naturally PHers are already discussing the proposed move - join the chat here.