Fortunes of Lotus on the up!

More cars being sold, an improvement in Profit Before Tax and more said to be on the way

Now PH knows very little, really, making even the simplest of press releases somewhat of a challenge. When it’s a financial press release, however, we really start to struggle. But bear with us, as it sounds like a lot of good news for Lotus. And if it’s wrong, please tell us where...

Under the banner of ‘Lotus delivers radical financial turnaround’, the important numbers from Hethel are as follows: Profit Before Tax has improved from a loss of £41.2m in the Financial Year (FY) 2015/2016 to £11.2m in 2016/17, with an improvement in the Profit Before Tax of £10m for the second half of 16/17 compared to the first six months. The Earnings Before Interest, Tax, Depreciation and Amortization (EBITDA) of Lotus was £2m for 2016/17, which looks very good against a £16.3m EBITDA loss for the previous financial year. This has been thanks to a 57 per cent increase in European sales and six-fold rise in the US; there are now 215 Lotus dealers globally too, a rise from 138 in 2014.

So it looks like the new model blitz has been a success! Clearly there is still progress to be made but there are a lot of positive signs here. Jean-Marc Gales said of the news: "We have emerged from the last three years a fitter and more effective business, where we are fast in bringing new sports cars to market and agile in adapting to new opportunities. We are now in a perfect position to develop the next generation of Lotus sports cars". What will those be? Well we know an Evora Roadster is on the way, plus there’s the SUV as well, and a new Elise is rumoured for around 2020 too. What else would you like to see?

Exciting times ahead for Lotus by the sounds of it then; we can’t wait to see what comes next!