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Vince Cable, the Business Secretary, visited Lotus recently to announce a £10m grant for the British sports car company.
The money will support the creation of more than 300 jobs and will help develop the next generation of Lotus sports cars.
The money has been made available by the Regional Growth Fund, a pot of £3.2bn which aims to support growth and sustainable employment outside the capital.
News of the grant comes just months after the company’s Malaysian owners, DRB-HICOM, injected £100m of funds into the company.
Aslam Farikullah, CEO at Lotus, explained how the money would benefit the company’s future aims: “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.”
British luxury car brands are increasingly popular across the world, particularly in China and India, where a burgeoning middle class have a strong appetite for prestigious vehicles.
Vince Cable visited Lotus’s Norfolk factory and took the opportunity to trumpet the UK’s growing car manufacturing industry, pointing out that 130,000 jobs were supported by it, and that the industry contributed £11bn to the British economy.
400 projects are being supported by the Regional Growth Fund across England, with £600m still to be allocated.
In January of 2012 Lotus came under the ownership of DRB-HICOM, which bought Proton and all of its assets. Along with sports and production cars, Lotus also operates Lotus Engineering – an engineering consultancy with operations in the UK, the USA, Malaysia and China.
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