Lotus bolts on lightweight business

摘要

Lotus is expanding its lightweight structures business and is working more closely with sportscar maker Spyker Cars of the Netherlands. Lotus has bought its chassis supplier Holden Lightweight Structures for an undisclosed sum. The UK facility will still assemble the spaceframe for the Elise, Exige and Europa sportscars. But it will also increase Lotus' in-house capacity for other aluminium and composite components as it adds a 2+2 sportscar and Tesla's all-electric roadster to its production work this year. Lotus also plans to grow the amount of design consultancy work its former-supplier does. Around 24 engineers at the site already work on projects for European OEMs. Group Lotus chief executive Mike Kimberley said: "The acquisition expands our lightweight vehicle R&D resources and lets us offer manufacturing services to OEMs seeking weight and cost reductions." The acquisition was not influenced by Lotus' closer ties with Spyker, but a recent agreement with the sportscar firm involves supply of parts and design and engineering work of future models.