Lotus’s rebirth under Geely ownership has been slow going. The Emira sports car showed plenty of promise, but was hampered by production delays and a price higher than initially promised. The Emeya and Eletre EVs haven’t proven hugely popular either, and being made in China, they are prohibitively expensive thanks to tariffs. Now, Lotus is making huge job cuts.
The BBC reports that Lotus is making 550 cuts at its Hethel, UK headquarters, which has around 1,300 employees total. In a statement, the automaker said “[we] believe this is necessary in order to secure a sustainable future for the company in today’s rapidly evolving automotive environment, which is seeing uncertainty with rapid changes in global policies, including tariffs.”
Lotus did reaffirm its “commitment” to the UK and said that Hethel—which the automaker opened in 1966—will remain the base for its “sports car, motorsports and engineering consulting operations.” In addition, the company said it’s “actively exploring future growth opportunities to diversify Lotus Cars’ business model, including through third-party manufacturing.”
We’ve reached out to Lotus to find out whether the job cuts are primarily in manufacturing. The automaker previously cut 270 jobs at Hethel back in February. It posted a $200 million loss in the first half of 2024 despite some sales momentum. And the outlook for the automotive industry was a lot different a year ago than it is now.
The Labour Member of Parliament for South Norfolk, Ben Goldsborough, described this news as a “punch in the stomach.” However, he did add that “the worst case scenario has been avoided, which is a complete and utter closure of Lotus UK.”
Despite its regard among enthusiasts, Lotus has always been in some state of financial trouble, especially since the death of founder Colin Chapman in 1982. Geely’s initially successful and hands-off stewardship of Volvo got many feeling optimistic when it acquired Lotus in 2017, but now, the future looks bleak for the iconic sports-car brand.
Same as it ever was.