The future of Group Lotus is looking more upbeat after it was revealed the Norfolk firm is to get an estimated £10 million cash injection from the government’s regional growth fund (RGF).
Business secretary Vince Cable revealed the news to the Eastern Daily Press. He told the paper: “We have now agreed the regional growth fund for Lotus. It was a few weeks ago that we finally signed off on it. There is a lot of detail still to grind through, but we have basically approved the bid.”
Group Lotus is not officially commenting on Cable’s revelation. Autocar sources have revealed the fresh application was submitted some weeks ago and has now been agreed in principle, with only due diligence left to complete, as Cable alluded to.
Under former boss Dany Bahar, Lotus submitted an application to get £10m from the RGF two and a half years ago. This was to fund development of five new cars, a plan that’s been put on ice following Bahar’s exit last year.
The application for the RGF was put on hold and has now been reprised under Lotus’s new management team, headed by Aslam Farikullah. The amount of money is understood to be similar to the original £10m, although sources remain coy on an exact figure and what it would be used for. This is to avoid any speculation about a new ‘plan’ for Lotus following the failure of Bahar’s proposals.
The RGF is designed for new jobs and training, and for R&D projects, suggesting Lotus still plans to expand its line-up.
Cable revealed that the government’s investments of around £1 billion from the RGF have led to around £6bn of investment from the private sector, with the car industry a particular beneficiary.
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You could make a small...
You could make a small fortune with Lotus.
You'd just have to start with a large fortune.
Well thats anoth £10m of
Well thats anoth £10m of taxpayers money wasted, but at least the wages will be paid for a couple of weeks, £10m is a joke figure, some companies spend more than that on advertising, its about time they folded the car business and concentrated on consultation and engineering.
OK, everyone seems to agree
OK, everyone seems to agree £10m wont end Lotus"s problems, but theyd sooner have it than not have it.
Id like to see the likes of Hyundai buying Lotus, I think theyd be really good for each other. Lotus could fine tune Hyundais Chassis (their only weakness) and Hyundai could help Lotus with quality control. And they have deep pockets. Maybe Lotus could engineer an MX5 rival for Hyundai.
I was wondering is Gordon Murray still at Lotus ? if so hopefully hes offering ideas as to what Lotus should do next.
Who would you like to see come to Lotus"s rescue ?
Who