Lotus is celebrating selling two of its flagship models - the £70 000 (R780 000), 270km/h Evora S - to the Italian Carabinieri, who were also offered Ferrari and Maserati models in place of their previous Lamborghini Gallardo chase cars, but instead opted for the British 2+2 sportsster.
Two sales won’t put Lotus back in the black - the company lost lost £1.3 million (R14.5 million) last year - but, as Lotus boss Danny Bahar said: “It’s a real honour for a relatively small British marque to be in this position.”
Bahar is confident Lotus will be back in profit by September, and plans to double its workforce to 2000 over the next four years to meet soaring foreign demand.
Last month Lotus workers were told their jobs could be at risk because the company had missed out on £27.5 million (R300 million) from the Regional Growth Fund, but Bahar insists its strategy - based on making five new aluminium and composite models - will meet increased production targets.
Lotus plans to boost output from 2675 cars a year - 80 percent of which are exported - to about 8000 in 2015.
Bahar said during a visit to the Lotus works near Norwich last week by business secretary Vince Cable that as many as 1200 jobs could be created despite losing out on government funding. - Daily Mail