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New Lotus Owners Ditch Ousted Bahar's Plans

Ambitious 5-year turnaround shuffled for more realistic short-term goals.

By Joshua Condon Jul 27, 2012 5:21AM
The Lotus Evora. Photo by Lotus.When Lotus CEO Dany Bahar was shown the door last month after a misconduct investigation, reportedly related to misuse of company resources for personal benefit, his ambitious -- some would say impossible -- five-year plan to turn Lotus into the new Ferrari followed him out, according to the new owners.

Gone are the five-models-in-five-​years ambitions, according to DRB-Hicom Bhd, which recently purchased Lotus Group parent company Proton. Three new models are now expected, and the company will look to save cash by making more use of in-house design talent and dropping pricey consultants.

Speaking of pricey, the new ownership has invested about $242 million in the company this year and plans to spend about half that amount again by next year.

Still, DRB-Hicom is taking the restructuring at its own pace, saying that the finished turnaround plan could take anywhere from six months to a year to finalize. In the meantime, could they maybe keep working on the Elise Concept? We really like that one.

The Lotus Esprit concept. Photo by Rick Wait.[Source: Autoblog.]

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Had it in CA
Jul 27, 2012 5:39AM
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I believe they should devote their efforts to removing all the "bugs" from their current lineup of vehicles and make each one world class in its segment.  Then, after their quality improves, they could venture into more products.

 

Absent that, their vehicles are too rough around the edges to justify their prices when compared to the competition.

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