Just to show America’s poorer cousins across the Atlantic Ocean can also enjoy a good multi-million dollar/pound bailout every now and then, British manufacturer Lotus has been awarded a £10.4-million grant (it’s a bailout) from the British Government’s Regional Growth Fund. The £10.4-million grant follows closely on the heels of investments in Lotus by new owners DRB-HICOM, who recently investing £100-million back into the stricken company.
It is said that the Regional Growth Fund is incentivised to create economic growth outside of London and had £3.2-billion for this initiative, which will not only allow Lotus to develop new models but will also create more than 300 jobs over five years at the Hethel, Norwich-based company.
Aslam Farikullah, COO at Lotus, said: “This grant is part of a wider strategy for Lotus created to ensure we thrive and grow. We are responding to increased global demand for our cars and engineering consultancy services and this grant will help to position Lotus at the forefront of global automotive innovation. We have very exciting plans for our sports cars and it’s a very positive move for Lotus that we’re in a position to create new jobs and to significantly contribute to Britain’s automotive industry,” he said.
The British car industry employs over 130 000 people and contributes £11-billion a year to the U.K.’s GDP. After disbanding the five-car plan of ex-Lotus boss, Dany Bahar, rumour says the Lotus Esprit could actually make it through to series production but the other plan is to focus on new variants of existing Lotus models: Elise, Exige and Evora, like the S Roadster and V6 Cup we’ve already seen from the cottage-industry sports car maker. We wish them well.
