Lotus offers glimpse of SUV to drum up support for possible IPO

British sports-car maker Group Lotus is touting its electrification push to help drive interest in a potential listing of its China-based business.  

Lotus Tech, which is developing electric cars for the Lotus brand, is weighing a listing in the UK, US or China, spokesperson James Andrew told reporters in London. Last week, Lotus showed off its upcoming Type 132 electric SUV — developed by Lotus Tech and to be built in Wuhan — to the financial community and dealers in London.

The size of the issue and valuation are still to be determined and no decision has yet been taken on whether to proceed with an IPO. 

Lotus Tech is important to parent Zhejiang Geely Holding Group’s plan to grow sales from the iconic British brand from 1,710 cars in 2021 to as many as 150,000 annually, driven primarily by the sale of what it bills as electric "lifestyle" vehicles. Lotus has said that half of its total sales may come from China in five years.

Like many other carmakers, UK-based Lotus is pivoting from combustion engines to electric vehicles. The long-awaited Emira sports car that will start deliveries later this year will be its last petrol-only model.

The company’s all-electric product pipeline includes a sports sedan due to be introduced next year, a smaller SUV the year after, and a sports car due in 2026. 

Chinese billionaire Li Shufu’s Geely, which also controls Sweden-based Volvo Car, purchased a stake in Group Lotus in 2017. It owns 51% of the company while Malaysia’s Etika Automotive owns the remainder. Under Geely, Lotus in 2019 launched its all-electric Evija hypercar, a 1,972-horsepower coupe that costs about $2m (roughly R30,182,280).

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