In the grand scheme of car companies, Lotus isn’t doing particularly well right now. Sure, a Lotus now one of the official rides of the King of England, but the company only delivered 5,272 non-royal vehicles from its British factory in 2024–still well under what its production facility in Hethel, England can produce. So Matt Windle, Lotus’ newly minted European boss, wants to broaden production at its factory to include products from other parts of the Geely automotive empire.
Lotus could really use the cash that more production at its facility would render. He’s also playing a big part in Lotus Cars’ merger with the Chinese-based company Lotus Technology which is responsible for the Eletre and Emeya electric vehicles. In an interview with Autocar, Windle said the move would be “better for the business.”
“It gives us a solid link between manufacturing and commercial on sports cars but allows me to work wider across the business as well,” Windle told the British magazine.
Trump has nearly killed Lotus
He said his aim is to grow production at the Hethel plant, which had to cut 270 earlier this year as demand for the Emira sports car dropped as U.S. tariffs were put in place by President Trump. Windle described the start of 2025 as “turbulent,” and I’d have to agree with him.
The automaker had to halt shipments of the Emira to the U.S. because of Trump’s 25% tariffs on imported vehicles. It also completely canceled sales of the Chinese-built Emeya and Eletre to The States because the tariffs would be too high to sell them. That means there are no cars currently heading to a market that accounts for around a fifth of Lotus’ 12,134 sales in 2024.
What Lotus wants to do about it
All of this has led to Lotus’ latest endeavor. It wants to build other automakers’ cars at its factory. It already has a bit of a history of doing this sort of thing, as Windle explained to Autocar.
“Back in the late 1990s and 2000s, we were building several models at Hethel [including the Elise-based Vauxhall VX220 and Tesla Roadster], and I think that’s a business model we’re exploring,” he told the outlet.
Of course, these potential cars wouldn’t be wholly unrelated to Lotus since they’d come from elsewhere in the Geely family of vehicles. One of the stronger possibilities is the upcoming Polestar 6 electric convertible.
“I think we could build it. There’s an element of transition, because at the moment it’s just ICE [at Hethel], but we’re going to have to go on that journey,” he said.
