Geely buys Lotus

25 May 2017

The Chinese continue to buy up European brands, on the order of Lotus

Automotive news long been filled with rumors that Geely intends to acquire a holding Malaysian Proton, and with it the Lotus, which belongs to the holding. Today it was announced that Zhejiang Geely Holding Group is buying a 49.9% stake in Proton, while the Chinese will own 51% stake in Lotus. In the end, under the wing of Geely will be finished, Lotus Cars and Lotus Engineering.

All fans of British firms do not particularly upset. The Chinese show a remarkable flexibility in the management of European brands. In contrast to the discontent you may recall the firm Volvo, which also owns Geely. The Chinese, buying in 2010, Volvo, Ford, invested in the Swedish company nearly $11 billion Since the Swedish automaker only flourished, developing new platforms, releasing a new family of engines and closely having been engaged in the technologies of Autonomous driving.

It is likely that the Chinese will be interested is debatable but not a hopeless project, Lotus SUV, reviving him on the platform Compact Modular Architecture (CMA), jointly developed by Volvo and is the basis of the compact XC40. About the crossover from Lotus at the end of 2016, spoke the head of the company, Jean-Marc Gayles: "the Project of our SUV at the moment, unfinished. We need technical partners that we're looking for." These partners now have! Who knows, maybe in near future we will see a lightweight compact "SUV" with excellent dynamics and controllability.

Not to say that to buy the Chinese Lotus had financial problems – the company finished the year 2016 in the black. By the way, in 2020, Lotus plans to launch the next generation Elise, and, most interestingly, a car certified for sales in the U.S. market. Anyway, but the financial ability Geely will definitely benefit the Lotus. At the same time "galovska" guru engineering is likely to help in the configuration of the chassis of Volvo and Geely. At the end, in the near future we may see expansion of the range Lotus and Volvo cars, zealously attacking turns.