Lotus receives government aid from the British government

Although there have been certain rumours that the financial situation of Lotus is not as good as it should be, we should not take this as a bailout by the English government, or anything similar. Lotus Engineering has received almost 12 million euros in aid to prevent the historic company from Hethel moving to another country to produce vehicles.

The original intention was to reach an agreement with the Austrians at Magna Steyr to produce some of its models in their factories. But in anticipation of the loss of jobs, English politicians decided it was time to hand over hard cash to Lotus, at very, very low interest.

The British government also managed to get Aston Martin to bring Rapide production back to England, so the Austrians have lost a very good customer and a future one. In Aston’s case, the English state had to pay out a little less: about 5 million euros.

Quite plainly, a blackmail by the brands of Her Gracious Majesty against their own government, which has had to give in and thus ensure that the industrial crisis is not any harsher than it already is.

The truth is that it is not the first warning light to come on at Lotus in recent months, despite having the support of Proton, its Malaysian partners.