British sports car marque founded by Colin Chapman in 1948. Majority-owned by China's Geely since 2017. Now shifting from lightweight combustion cars to electric and hybrid performance models built on Geely architecture.
Plug-in hybrid version of the Lotus Eletre, sold in China as the Lotus For Me. A 2.0L turbo range-extender setup with two electric motors, 70 kWh battery, and 350 km of WLTP electric range. H550 makes 550 hp, H1000 makes 952 hp. From €96,990 in Germany. Deliveries Q4 2026.
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Lotus was founded in 1948 by Colin Chapman and built its reputation on lightweight engineering, with the Elise, Exige, and Evora as its core sports cars and a Formula 1 history that ran from the late 1950s into the 1990s.
Geely took a controlling stake in 2017 and reorganised the company into two streams: Lotus Cars in the UK, which continues to build the petrol Emira, and Lotus Technology, based in Wuhan, which develops the electric and hybrid models. The Eletre SUV, the Emeya saloon, and the Eletre X hybrid all use Geely’s electric architecture and are produced in China.
The brand now sits in the premium performance market rather than among the lightweight specialists it once shared a market with.
