Lotus Cars
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| Private Limited Company | |
| Industry | Automotive |
| Founded | 1952 |
| Founder | Colin Chapman |
| Headquarters |
Hethel, Norfolk, England, United Kingdom |
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Area served
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Worldwide |
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Key people
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| Products | Automobiles, automotive parts |
| Owner |
Proton (1996–present) R. Artioli/Bugatti (1993–1996) General Motors (1986–1993) |
| Parent | Proton Holdings Berhad |
| Website | Lotuscars.com |
Lotus Cars is a British company that manufactures sports cars and racing cars with its headquarters in Hethel, United Kingdom, and is a subsidiary of Malaysian automotive company Proton. Notable Lotus cars include the Esprit, Elan, Europa and Elise sports cars and it had motor racing success with Team Lotus in Formula One. Lotus Cars is based at the former site of RAF Hethel, a World War II airfield in Norfolk. The company designs and builds race and production automobiles of light weight and fine handling characteristics. It also owns the engineering consultancy Lotus Engineering, which has facilities in the United Kingdom, United States, China, and Malaysia.
Lotus is owned by DRB-HICOM through its subsidiary Proton, which acquired it following the bankruptcy of former owner Romano Artioli in 1996.
The company was formed as Lotus Engineering Ltd. by engineers Colin Chapman and Colin Dare, both graduates of University College, London, in 1952. The four letters in the middle of the logo stand for the initials of company founder, Anthony Colin Bruce Chapman. When the logo was created, Colin Chapman's original partners Michael and Nigel Allen were led to believe that the letters stood for Colin Chapman and the Allen Brothers.
The first factory was situated in old stables behind the Railway Hotel in Hornsey, North London. Team Lotus, which was split off from Lotus Engineering in 1954, was active and competitive in Formula One racing from 1958 to 1994. The Lotus Group of Companies was formed in 1959. This was made up of Lotus Cars Limited and Lotus Components Limited, which focused on road cars and customer competition car production, respectively. Lotus Components Limited became Lotus Racing Limited in 1971 but the newly renamed entity ceased operation in the same year.
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