Lotus expands engineering division
It wasn’t that long ago when we talked about the hard times that Lotus is going through and how it was saved eventually by its new owner the Malaysian manufacturing group DRB-Hicom.
Well it appears that the new owner is committed to add a hundred employees to the British brands’ operations, including 45 engineers, 40 manufacturing operatives and 18 graduates.
DRB-Hicom announced a month ago that it will invest in excess of $166 million within three years to secure the future of the sports car manufacturer. The group bought both Proton and Lotus last year.
They’ve also announced that they will be setting aside the ambitious plan set out by former Lotus CEO Danny Bahar to launch five new Lotus models in five years. They have chosen instead to focus on creating derivatives of the existing Elise, Exige and Evora lines.
The new employees will be working on these new models, because according to the company, the increased workforce is necessary to meet both the increased global demand for their products as well as also the forecast increased use of its engineering consultancy services.
According to the company it also plans on embarking on a diversification strategy to find new markets for its cars with 90 percent of production already being exported to markets outside the UK.
The success of Lotus has always been built on the basis of their talented and dedicated workforce.
It’s quite a positive sign for both the UK car industry and Lotus that they can recruit a high number of both experienced specialists and graduates, who are willing to take the first steps on a new career path.
COO Aslam Farikullah acknowledged the difficult period that the company went through under its previous managegemd and added that the company went through a period of substantial change and that Lotus is now in a much stronger position to expand their work.
