The rebirth of Lotus in the age of the electric car

Lotus may be a small player in the grand scheme of things, writes Steven Cutts, but with the electric revolution the British company is hoping to change that

Unlike many of the smaller engineering firms in Britain, Lotus continues to prosper (Lotus/iStock/The Independent)

There was a time when British car companies were the dominant force on the global stage. During the early 1950s, Britain was the number one exporter of motor vehicles in the world and there were people in the industry at the time who thought they were looking at the new normal. To the modern mind, that time feels very distant but it’s probably worth remembering just how rapidly this field has evolved. By their very nature, no car company can be much more than 120 years old and, in a historical sense, the internal combustion engine looks set to have driven our lives for a vanishingly brief period.

Britain was never short on successful start-ups and a few of these have made it into the 21st century. Colin Chapman was the visionary engineer who founded the Norfolk-based Lotus cars, and while Lotus remains a niche player in the automotive world, it’s important to remember just how many of our iconic brands have faded out completely in the modern era. For the British car industry today, survival in itself is something of an achievement.

This year marks the 40th anniversary of Chapman’s death and since then Lotus has changed hands several times in that period. Unlike many of the smaller engineering firms in Britain, Lotus continues to prosper both as the maker of specialist cars and as an engineering consultancy group.