“Five cars at one go, is no go,” Proton deputy CEO Datuk Lukman Ibrahim told the Malaysian paper The Star last week. Ibrahim was referring to former CEO Dany Bahar’s ambitious ‘five cars in five years’ plan, that was announced at the 2010 Paris Motor Show.
Since then, Lotus’ parent company was bought by DRB-Hicom and CEO Dany Bahar was fired for misconduct. This has caused a lot of speculation about the company’s future, but it appears DRB-Hicom is committed to the automaker, as last week they rejected an offer to purchase and have apparently submitted a new business plan to Lotus’ main creditors.
No further information is available at the moment, but suggestions are that plans for a new Lotus Esprit will go ahead, while many of the more luxurious concepts will be dropped. Also scrapped in the process was the idea that Lotus would produce its own engines for the new models. Apart from the sheer cost of this exercise, the dismal performance of Lotus-powered cars in the IndyCar series should be enough of a deterrent for the company.
We certainly hope to see Lotus return to form in the future and we’ll keep you updated accordingly.
