Automotive News Europe — 2025-06-28
Automotive Industry
Lotus Cars has denied it plans to close its factory in Hethel, England, amid heavy losses.
“Lotus Cars is continuing normal operations, and there are no plans to close the factory,” the company said in a statement June 28. “We are actively exploring strategic options to enhance efficiency and ensure global competitiveness in the evolving market.”
Multiple sources said the automaker, which is owned by China’s Geely Group, planned to shut the factory and move some production to the U.S. to avoid tariffs.
Geely paused plans to close the plant after the British government intervened, The Sunday Times reported. Government officials contacted Geely and Lotus asking for emergency talks on the closure plan, the newspaper said.
The Financial Times, which first reported on the factory’s potential closure, said the government had intervened to signal it would offer Lotus support, but the Department for Business and Trade did not confirm that.
“The government does not comment on speculation or the commercial affairs of private companies,” a spokesperson for the department said on June 29.
Tariffs hit U.K. auto production
Any closure of the factory would have been a blow for Britain’s auto industry which is suffering as a result of U.S. tariffs. Britain’s vehicle production dropped 33 percent from a year ago, industry data showed on June 27.
The Hethel plant, which employ 1,300 people, has been Lotus’s home since 1966. The brand builds cars there and in a factory in Wuhan, China that opened in 2022 to produce its battery-electric models.
In the statement the company called the U.K. “the heart of the Lotus brand,” noting that it is also Lotus’s largest commercial market in Europe.
The doubts about the future of the Hethel plant come after Lotus CEO Feng Qingfeng said the company is considering U.S. production after sales plummeted because of new tariff barriers.
Lotus has had an “in-depth discussion” with its strategic partners with the aim of moving production, Feng said on the company’s first-quarter earnings call June 25.
Building in the U.S. would cut tariffs to zero. “We are trying to leverage our U.S. strategy to catch up the losses due to the tariff hike,” Feng said. “We believe that localization is a feasible plan.”
Lotus could build cars in Volvo’s U.S. plant
Feng did not name the strategic partners but Lotus could build its cars in Volvo’s plant in South Carolina, which has spare capacity. Volvo is majority owned by Geely Group.
Lotus posted a net loss of $183 million in the first quarter, down from $258 million in the same quarter in the year before, while debt climbed to $3.3 billion.
The U.S. is a key market for the gasoline-powered Emira coupe, which reached record global sales of 5,272 in 2024. The U.S. accounted for a fifth of Lotus’s global sales last year at 2,578, up 21 percent from 2023, according to company figures.
Lotus paused shipments to the U.S. after tariffs hit its cars built in China and the U.K.
Lotus has stopped selling its Eletre crossover in the U.S. because of tariffs on China-built EVs.
The company halted U.S. exports of the Emira in April when President Donald Trump imposed a 25 percent tariff on auto imports from Europe. The British government has since negotiated a reduction in the tariff to 10 percent.
Lotus will restart Emira shipments to the U.S. in August, with the 2026 model version, Feng said on the earnings call.
Lotus stopped selling the China-built Eletre full-electric crossover in the U.S. after Trump’s predecessor, Joe Biden, quadrupled tariffs on EVs from China to 100 percent from 25 percent.
Lotus’s global deliveries fell 42 percent to 1,274 in the first quarter.
Emira could be built in U.S.
Feng did not name the potential models Lotus could build in the U.S. but a source told Automotive News Europe that the Emira sports car was a possibility.
Lotus Europe CEO Matt Windle said in an interview in May that the U.S. is an “incredibly important market for us for the car.”
Lotus has been cutting costs at the Hethel site to stem losses, including axing 270 jobs in April.
Geely invested £100 million into the Hethel site after buying Lotus in 2017. It opened a revamped sports-car factory there in 2022.