Reuters Exclusive: British sports car Lotus to be made in China

Reuters exclusively reported that the Chinese owner of Lotus plans to start producing the British sports car in China for the first time with the opening of a new 9 billion yuan ($1.3 billion) factory in Wuhan city. The previously unreported plans are Zhejiang Geely Holding Group’s first move to shake up the British brand since its purchase of a majority stake in 2017. The move is in line with Geely’s ambitions to build more up-market cars and throw off its reputation for copycat designs and shoddy quality. For Lotus, it could mean greater production volumes and new models such as SUVs to boost sales.