Lotus Denies Reports It’s Closing Its UK Factory

Over the weekend, some fairly alarming reports started emerging in the British press that Lotus was considering shutting down its long-time headquarters in Hethel, in the English county of Norfolk.

The reports, originating in the Financial Times, claimed that the company was mulling the closure of the site and moving production abroad, potentially to the USA. Although no specific reasons were given, reading between the lines suggested that the 25 per cent tariff introduced by Donald Trump on all non-US-built cars being imported into the country was at least partially to blame. Around 1300 jobs were said to be at risk.

However, Lotus has now released a statement categorically denying these reports, saying:

“The UK is the heart of the Lotus brand—home to our sports car manufacturing, global design centre, motorsport operations, and Lotus Engineering. It is also our largest commercial market in Europe.

“Lotus Cars is continuing normal operations, and there are no plans to close the factory. We are actively exploring strategic options to enhance efficiency and ensure global competitiveness in the evolving market.”

This doesn’t necessarily mean that the company won’t build cars overseas – in fact, it already does, producing the Eletre and Emeya EVs in Wuhan, China. Only the Emira sports car and low-volume Evija hypercar are built at Hethel, and production of the former has been halted since April due to the aforementioned tariffs. However, a trade deal between the UK and US, reducing that tax from 25 to 10 per cent, goes into effect today.

Nevertheless, Automotive News reports that Lotus CEO Feng Qinfeng told investors on an earnings call last week that additional production facilities are being considered in the US, too, potentially in Volvo’s factory in South Carolina – both Lotus and the Swedish brand are owned by Chinese giant Geely.

While things seemingly remain a little touch-and-go at Lotus, then, the confirmation that it has no plans to shut down the factory it’s called home since 1966 is a bit of good news for both it and the UK car industry.