Lotus Succumbs to New Volvo Power

On October 7th, 2019 Geely Holding Group (Geely) announced its new development plans with Lotus Cars. Lotus has famously used a variable array of Japanese engines, such as the 138l supercharged 2ZR-FE inline-4 Toyota motor for their small but powerful car line. Geely announced that this Monday that “The new effort is designed to consolidate previously separate development processes taking place within Volvo and Geely in Gothenburg.” This new partnership will allow brands like Lotus to take advantage of the Volvo powertrain development program that focuses on an all electric line of passenger and performance cars.

Geely has been owned by the Volvo Car Group (Volvo) since 2010. Within that time, they have focused on being the driving force behind Volvo’s “All Electric Future” initiative. (For more information on Volvo’s “All Electric Future” check out our article here). This new initiative with Geely at the helm, focuses on fully electric passenger and performance based cars within Volvo, Proton, LEVC and a few other brands under their direction.

President and CEO of Geely Auto Group An Conghui said: “While pushing ahead on the transformation to full electrification, we will continue to increase our investments in the development of highly efficient combustion engines and hybrid systems to provide our customers with the most competitive products and service, whilst improving our joint operational efficiency.”

“Hybrid cars need the best internal combustion engines. This new unit will have the resources, scale and expertise to develop these powertrains cost efficiently,” said Håkan Samuelsson, Volvo Cars’ President and Chief Executive.

This means we get to see the evolution of Volvo and Lotus in a parallel universe very soon.