Lotus certainly goes through bosses. It’s not quite nine years since Dany Bahar’s acrimonious departure from the sports car maker, but new managing director Matt Windle is the fifth man to lead the business since then – with his well-regarded predecessor Phil Popham only just getting past two years at the top.
But unlike many of those before him, Windle hasn’t been promoted to leadership at a time of crisis or after a change in leadership. His move from the role of engineering director was an orderly one, and he remains committed to the Vision 80 plan put in the place by Popham. It’s one that will give Lotus an all-new model range as soon as next year, then move aggressively towards both electrification and a dramatic increase in global sales soon afterwards.
Affable, approachable and energetic, Windle is the antithesis of some of his aloof predecessors, with a CV that proves his desire for fresh challenges. He started out at Lotus in 1998 and then moved to Tesla after working on the original Roadster. His subsequent career included stints with Nissan, Caterham and Volvo, and he was part of the team behind sports car startup Zenos. Windle rejoined Lotus in 2017 – the year Geely completed its takeover, and realised that, as he puts it: “There was a proper car company here – it just needed the products and the investment”. He continues: “That’s what we’ve done now. Hethel is the most modern it has ever been, we’re going to have the newest automated paint shop in the world and a world-class manufacturing facility creating all-new products.
Development on the Evija and Emira – the car previously known to us as the Type 131 – was already substantially complete when Windle took charge in January. Now his big challenge is getting both to market, most significantly the Emira, which will collectively replace the much-loved but slow-selling Elise, Exige and Evora. “I bumped into somebody today who said ‘it’s 80 days to launch’,” he says. “That’s how close it is; we’re talking days rather than months.”
As well as being Lotus’s last combustion-engined car, the Emira is intended to have a broader appeal than the outgoing trio. “I think Lotus in the past has maybe been a bit guilty of engineering something it thought people wanted and then putting it to the market,” Windle admits. “Now we’re trying to engineer something that people actually want.”
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Please come back TVR, all is forgiven.
So they are dropping their best known products, and instead we are getting an updated version of the expensive one. It will come with 2 engines, one with a turbo, and an auto gearbox (neither very Lotus), so a manual Lotus will only come with the bigger (more expensive?) engine. And no more convertibles either.
But they have got a £2,000,000 EV if you want one. And some spare Lotus badges to stick on the back of a Chinease SUV one day soon.