Lotus has had an interesting history, to say the least, but the company recently announced it had managed its strongest year since 2011. Yes, Lotus still sells relatively few cars (1,630 cars worldwide in 2018 compared to more than 5,000 for Aston Martin) but it’s a company very much looking forwards, which is why the company has announced today a new partnership with Williams Advanced Engineering.
Lotus joins with Williams Advanced Engineering in new technical partnership
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The name ‘Williams’ is one you’ll no doubt be familiar with, having featured so prominently in the world of Formula 1 since the Williams Racing team, now Williams F1, was established by Sir Frank Williams in the late 1970s. One area of the Williams business you might not be so familiar with is Williams Advanced Engineering, the “technology and engineering services business” of the Williams Group. Created in 2010, WAE works on a huge range of projects that are separate to the Williams F1 team, from electrification, aerodynamics and lightweight materials.
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Electrification in particular is the area of WAE’s business that Lotus is particularly interested in, as the Lotus brand cannot survive the world of vehicle manufacturing without some kind of electrification plan.
“Our new technology partnership with Williams Advanced Engineering is part of a strategy to expand our knowledge and capability in the rapidly changing automotive landscape,” Lotus Cars’ CEO Phil Popham explained. “Applying advanced propulsion powertrains can provide numerous exciting solutions across multiple vehicle sectors. Our combined and complementary experiences make this a very compelling match of engineering talent, technical ability and pioneering British spirit.”
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So will we have an ell-electric Lotus Exige, Evora or Elise coming some time soon? Well perhaps not yet, but Lotus’ pairing with WAE is part of a broader strategy, under new majority shareholders Geely, to join forces with other technical partners and expand the company’s future prospects.
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Considering WAE was behind Jaguar’s C-X75 hybrid hypercar that oh-so-nearly made it to production a few years ago (a car that, arguably, looked technically more interesting than the Porsche 918 Spyder, McLaren P1 and Ferrari LaFerrari, and was a bigger departure from the hypercar engine norm with its 850bhp, turbocharged, supercharged, four-cylinder hybrid powertrain), as well as the dramatic Dendrobium hypercar, Lotus couldn’t have chosen a better engineering group to work with. We’re excited to see what comes next.
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