Lotus cars

Lotus was founded by a man whose passion led his engineering mind to create many iconic cars. Colin Chapman's creativity was second to none during his era. Lotus created the Esprit (which was featured in James Bond film), Elan and more notably the Elise which surprised the motoring world with its simplicity by proving that light weight cars can be more fun than big heavy cars with massive horsepower.

Lotus was sold to Proton in the 1990s and the company was almost run into the ground by Proton as Proton only used Lotus's engineering department to develop Proton car's suspension and chassis. Lotus was left floundering and only sold the Elise to survive. The Exige model was introduced in several years later but did not really make any impact on the Lotus car sales. Lotus's business direction was going in the wrong direction as the world economy started to take a nose dive and sports cars were second priority to most car buyers.

Lotus until today only have sports cars for sale and did not ride on the luxury sports saloon wave where Porsche and Aston Martin were making good money. Lotus also did not develop any SUVs like Porsche did. By limiting the models to only sports cars the sales volume will always remain low.

Lotus's reputation for a sports car manufacturer alone would not guarantee its survival. Lotus did not have the racing pedigree reputation like Ferrari which the brand value alone was worth billions of dollars. Lotus needs a car that would appeal more to the masses that was capable of selling in large numbers globally in order for it to survive in this difficult economic climate. Sacrifices need to be made by cutting back on sports car development and focus on luxury sports saloons and SUV model that could be sold in key markets such as US, Japan, China, India and Middle East.

One major downside for Lotus is that is does not have its own engine and transmission. Transmission aside, the engine was a major component that was missing. Transmission wise Lotus can always work with reputable manufacturers such as Aisin, Borg Warner or Getrag. Lotus have gone from working with Rover and then Toyota for engines however, Lotus really need to have their own engines to truly call the car their own.

Lotus's current owner DRB-Hicom can only inject a limited amount of money to keep Lotus afloat. Drastic changes in management direction has to be made in order for Lotus to survive beyond 2020.