Lotus models to be made in China

Lotus will soon build cars at a new Geely-owned factory in Wuhun city in central China that's capable of building 150,000 cars a year, it has been revealed.

According to

The move to shift production of new models, like the car-maker's forthcoming SUV, is being viewed as Geely's desire to shift the Lotus brand from a niche sportscar-maker to an upmarket premium brand that produces cars in far higher volumes than it currently does.

Last year, in its 70th anniversary, Lotus sold just 1630 cars globally; although that was a big improvement on the 783 Elise, Exige and Evoras it delivered in 2017.

It has not been confirmed when manufacturing will begin but, interestingly, the new plant has a license to build both hybrids and pure-electric vehicles, hinting that Lotus could build its forthcoming pure-electric hypercar at the new factory.

More likely is the new facility will be shared with Geely's own car-making exploits, with only a small part of the plant devoted to Lotus. Whatever the case, the extra production facility will enable the Norfolk-based brand to rapidly ramp up the number of cars it builds.

As motoring.com.au reported back in August, Geely is about to invest $A2.6 billion to help revive Lotus and transform the brand into a true premium rival to Porsche.

It's thought the first model to roll off the new production facility will be the Porsche Cayenne-rivalling SUV that's due to be on sale in 2020. From then on Lotus plans to rapidly replace and expand its existing line-up, including introducing a million-dollar pure-electric hypercar.

For now, it's thought the existing production facility based in Hethel will live on as it continues to produce both the Elise and Exige.