British sports car marque Lotus eyes IPO as it seeks to extend Chinese parent Geely’s EV empire

British carmaker hopes to float shares in two years
Company has ambitions of selling 100,000 vehicles globally in 2028, an about 60-fold increase over last year

Geely

Daniel Renin Shanghai

Published: 8:16pm, 21 Feb 2022

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Lotus, the British sports car brand majority owned by China’s Zhejiang Geely Holding Group, is in early discussions about a stock market listing with the idea of raising fresh capital for global expansion and electric vehicle (EV) development.

The carmaker hopes to float initial public offering (IPO) shares in two years. It has ambitions of selling 100,000 vehicles globally in 2028, which would represent an about 60-fold increase over last year, when it delivered 1,710 cars, the Financial Times reported, citing Matt Windle, the managing director of Lotus’s sports car division.

In 2017, Geely agreed to acquire a 49.9 per cent stake in struggling Malaysian carmaker Proton, which also gave it control over Lotus. Last year, the British marque split its business into two divisions: one based in Norfolk making sports cars; and the other, Lotus Technology, making lifestyle electric sport-utility vehicles (SUVs) in Wuhan, in China’s central Hubei province.

Lotus Technology plans to launch four smart EVs in the next five years. This year, it will launch an electric SUV code-named Type 132. Next year, it plans to debut the Type 133, an electric four-door coupe.

Geely in partnership to develop battery-swap services as EV market booms

“Geely is adamant in enforcing its multi-brand strategy,” said Chen Jinzhu, CEO of Shanghai Mingliang Auto Service. “In the Chinese market, car buyers are interested to know details about its new pure-electric cars.”

Lotus will be following in the footsteps of Polestar, the Swedish high-performance EV brand that is owned by Volvo Cars, which was acquired by Geely in 2010. Polestar said earlier that it would go public in the first half of this year.

Geely joins BYD, Tesla in electric truck fray, launches Homtruck

Geely, which is based in Hangzhou, in China’s eastern Zhejiang province, and is controlled by Chinese billionaire Li Shufu, also owns a stake in Daimler.

China, the world’s largest EV market, is estimated to report sales of 5.5 million new-energy vehicles – comprising pure electric, plug-in hybrid and fuel cell cars – this year, up 84 per cent from 2021, according to Cui Dongshu, general secretary of the China Passenger Car Association.

Swiss bank UBS also forecast last year that three out of every five new cars taking to China’s roads in 2030 will be powered by batteries.

Geely puts US$23.4 billion behind 2025 goal of 40 per cent EV output

Geely, one of China’s largest carmakers, has been actively chasing a leading position in the EV sector over the past few years. In November last year, Geely Automobile Group, Geely’s Hong Kong-listed unit, said it had set aside 150 billion yuan (US$23.7 billion) for research and development over the next few years, with the ultimate goal of developing so-called L5 autonomous driving capability.

Four in every 10 cars, or 1.55 million out of the 3.65 million vehicles expected to roll off Geely assembly lines, will be plug-in petrol-electric hybrids or fully electric cars by 2025, Geely Automobile Group CEO Gan Jiayue said in October last year.

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