It’s almost a decade since then-Lotus CEO Dany Bahar’s infamous Paris show launch of six all-new models, none of which ever got close to seeing the light of day.
In fact, the trio of sports cars - Lotus Elise, Lotus Exige and Lotus Evora - Lotus does make is the same now as it was before even Bahar arrived.
The company’s morale has been low, its Hethel HQ run down and future plans always far enough away to remain a dream rather than an imminent reality.
Yet when Geely took over Lotus 18 months ago, we thought the good times were set to finally arrive at Lotus.
The Chinese giant’s guardianship of Volvo has been the industry’s stand-out success story of the past decade. Now there are similar positive signs at Lotus, too.
Unlike Bahar, new Lotus CEO Phil Popham will only show and discuss new models when there is engineering integrity and production intent behind them.
The first new model is still at least a year away, but a five-year plan is in place with serious investment secured.
There is no car company with as much untapped potential as Lotus, nor one to keep as close an eye on to see how great it can finally be.
For now, life is returning to Hethel, and Lotus is at last beginning to look, feel and sound like a proper car company.
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manicm
are you joking? bahar was atrocious at best, an absolute money burning celebration of moronity, who was set only to be the absolute death of the company. yes, they had an engine running, but what was it going to be bolted to? nothing that was anywhere near ready! and, what state was that engine in? was it anywhere near production? don't be silly. that "esprit" was about as close to production ready as etna, there was still an absolute fortune to be spent. while this is going on, a different group of people are trying to sort out the problems the evora was born with. as with the elise, didn't you have the feeling that they were basically forced to launch the car before they had got it fully sorted? it has to be in production before the money runs out. demotivated engineers were complaining and leaving, not quite like "fleeing the sinking ship", but bahar was destroying the thing that lotus absolutely is; engineering, engineering like nobody else. no, there haven't been any new lotuses since bahar was fired (left? hardly), and that esprit never saw light of day. why not? absolute lack of money, it was nowhere near ready, and the company being a total mess. By all means, tell other people to get their facts straight, but perhaps spend some time checking your affairs are in order too. the only thing bahar did that was actually worthwhile was getting the test track resurfaced, and even then, that's questionable.
In-House V8 ?
Lotus in-house V8 under Bahar, I think if you check your facts was nothing more than a modified DTM engine project manufactured by German DTM supplier ( I think from memory ) DWA ? Who were associated with Bahar’s German ‘Chief Engineer’ at the time.
Ghosn vs Bahar
Bahar was completely useless. Yes, under his watch the Esprit V8 may have been rectified, but it should have worked in the first place. His fantasy about 6 models was exactly that. Also, as CEO, you need to find the funding to get your plans to fruition, that’s why they pay you the big bucks!
Ghosn turned round Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi and is a completely different league. Yes, he has been arrested, but he certainly hasn’t been convicted and I think even the Japanese may struggle.
i remember how excited the Autocar journos got when Bahar revealed his pipe dreams, they didn’t even bother to think where the money might come from.
I hope Geely works better