The Geely brand Lotus wants to float its technology division Lotus Technology on the stock market in the next twelve to 24 months to raise capital for its electric campaign. It has not yet been decided whether the IPO will be carried out in Asia, London or New York, while the type of IPO is also still open.
According to a report by UK publication Autocar, a conventional IPO is preferred to a SPAC listing, which means merging with an already listed company – a method that has recently become a trend. Geely has also already joined this SPAC trend with Polestar.
Lotus Technology is a new division of Group Lotus that aims to accelerate innovation in batteries and energy management, electric motors, electronic control systems, intelligent driving, smart manufacturing among other things – in other words; to develop the core elements of electric cars. Lotus Technology is currently establishing its global headquarters in Wuhan.
Lotus told investors that the brand plans annual sales of 100,000 cars by 2028, of which 90,000 will be electric sedans and SUVs produced by Lotus Technology in China. The company is currently building a plant for this purpose in Wuhan as well, that is designed to have a capacity of 150,000 vehicles per year. The remaining 10,000 vehicles, will be electric sports cars that are to be built at Lotus’ British plant in Hethel.
Back in April 2021, Lotus declared it will exclusively sell electric cars from 2028 onwards. So far, the British brand has only one electric car on offer, the wickedly expensive Evija hypercar. Four electric models are planned until 2026, starting with an SUV in the e-segment, which has so far been called the ‘Type 132’. The ‘Type 133’, a four-door coupé in the E-segment, is then to be presented in 2023. In 2025, an electric D-segment SUV is to be shown, previously referred to as the ‘Type 134’. The ‘Type 135’, which will conclude in 2026, will then be an “all-new electric sports car”.
The first three vehicles will be based on an 800-volt platform called the Lotus Premium Architecture that is said to allow battery sizes between 92 and 120 kWh. The sports car announced for 2026 could be based on a new lightweight chassis presented in September 2021.
In the past, there have been repeated attempts to lead the Lotus brand out of its niche – more than ten years ago, its own combustion engine was developed for this purpose to replace the previously purchased engines. After a change of ownership and strategy, SUV models came up for discussion years ago but never made it to market. Geely took over the majority of Lotus Cars in 2017.
Keyword: Geely plans to go public with Lotus Technology