Lotus Tech, an all-electric lifestyle vehicle company, headquartered in Wuhan, China, and operates regional facilities in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Germany.

After his death and a period of financial instability, it was bought by General Motors, then Romano Artioli and then DRB-HICOM through its subsidiary Proton, which owned Lotus from 1996 to 2017.

The site is a former World War II airfield, RAF Hethel, and the test track uses sections of the old runway.

By the mid-1970s, Lotus sought to move upmarket with the launch of the Elite and Eclat models, four-seaters aimed at prosperous buyers, with features such as optional air conditioning and automatic transmissions.

Variants of the 900-series engine were supplied for the Jensen Healey sports car and the Sunbeam Lotus "hot hatchback".

This situation resulted from the worldwide economic recession combined with the virtual collapse of sales in the American market and limited development of the model range.

Former Ferrari North America general manager John Spiech was recruited to run LPCI, which imported the remarkable Giugiaro-designed Turbo Esprit for the first time.

[14] At the trial of Lotus accountant Fred Bushell, the judge insisted that had Chapman lived, he would have received a sentence "of at least 10 years.

"[15] With Group Lotus near bankruptcy in 1983, David Wickins, the founder of British Car Auctions, agreed to become the new company chairman through an introduction by his friend Mark Thatcher.

[14] Taking a combined 29% BCA/personal stake in Group Lotus,[16] Wickins negotiated with Inland Revenue and recruited new investors: merchant bank Schroeder-Wagg (14%),[16] Michael Ashcroft's Bermudian operating company Benor (14%)[17] and Sir Anthony Bamford of JCB (12%).

[16] In January 1986, Wickins oversaw the majority sale of the Group Lotus companies and 100% of North American–based LPCI to General Motors.

Holdings S.A. of Luxembourg, a company controlled by Italian businessman Romano Artioli, who also owned Bugatti Automobili SpA.

[21][22] The remaining 49% was acquired by Etika Automotive, a holding company of Proton's major shareholder Syed Mokhtar Albukhary.

[23] In January 2021, Geely announced a joint venture with Renault–Nissan–Mitsubishi Alliance and its Alpine division to develop a range of electric performance cars sharing some of their future platforms.

[24] In April 2021, Lotus announced plans to produce only electric cars by 2028 and increase production numbers from around 1,500 per annum to tens of thousands.

which has a different ownership structure (30% by Etika and the rest by Geely and Nio Capital), was listed on Nasdaq in February 2024, following the completion of a merger with a special-purpose acquisition company affiliated with L Catterton.

Lotus's powertrain department is responsible for the design and development of the four-cylinder Ecotec engine found in many of GM's Vauxhall, Opel, Saab, Chevrolet and Saturn cars.

Bahar intended to drive the brand into the expanding global luxury-goods sector and away from the company's traditional lightweight simplicity and pure driving-experience focus.

[29] On 7 June 2012, Lotus announced the termination of Bahar and the appointment of Aslam Farikullah as the new chief operating officer.

[31] In January 2021, Matt Windle was appointed managing director of Lotus Cars after Phil Popham resigned.

Clark was killed in April 1968 when the rear tyre of his Formula Two Lotus 48 failed while making a turn at a race in Hockenheim.

Team Lotus was among the pioneers in Formula One in adding wings and shaping the undersurface of the car to create downforce.

Formula One Drivers' Championship winners for Lotus were Jim Clark in 1963 and 1965, Graham Hill in 1968, Jochen Rindt in 1970, Emerson Fittipaldi in 1972 and Mario Andretti in 1978.

It also preserves the Team Lotus archive and Works Collection of cars, under the management of Colin Chapman's son Clive.

After fielding underpowered and uncompetitive engines in the 2012 Indianapolis 500, in which drivers Jean Alesi and Simona de Silvestro were black-flagged after ten laps for failing to maintain a competitive pace, Lotus was released from its contract and did not participate in future seasons.

[46] It became apparent in July 2012 that the firm's financial difficulties had made this plan impossible to implement, and initially all but the Esprit project were cancelled.

[51] Lotus CEO at the time Jean Marc Gales confirmed in 2017 that development of an SUV is currently under way, after the company was acquired by the Chinese automotive manufacturer, Geely.

In January 2021, Lotus teased that the Elise, Exige, and Evora would be discontinued and be replaced by the Type 131 which had yet to be released at the time of announcement.

As well as Hethel in the United Kingdom Lotus has engineering centres in Ann Arbor, USA, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and Shanghai, China.

[72] Lotus joined Jaguar Cars, MIRA Ltd and Caparo on a luxury hybrid executive sedan project called "Limo-Green"—funded by the UK Government Technology Strategy Board.