Lotus Engineering Recruits For Major Expansion Of Global Operations

Hui Zhang joined Lotus Engineering in September as General Manager - China Operations with responsibility to generate growth in third party business in China and to improve the Lotus Engineering local delivery service structure. Hui Zhang joins Lotus Engineering from Kiekert with a wealth of international business experience and specific expertise in the European and Chinese Automotive industries.

Martin Elbs joined Lotus Engineering as Head of Sales for Europe on the 1st February 2011. This role will focus on developing the sales organisation to generate increased consultancy business in Europe and to manage the opening of a Lotus Engineering office in Germany. Martin Elbs has joined Lotus Engineering after 15 years at the German engineering company ETAS GmbH. He has an engineering background, strong international management credentials and brings an impressive breadth of experience to the role.

2010 signalled the third successive year of third party sales growth for Lotus Engineering, in line with the company's five year business plan to grow revenue from external clients. To accommodate this expansion, approximately 400 engineers will be recruited by 2015.

Dr Robert Hentschel, Director of Lotus Engineering said, "This is a very exciting time for us – this period will be seen as a renaissance in the history of Lotus. Whilst providing engineering support for the spectacular new range of Lotus cars unveiled at the Paris Motorshow, we will significantly invest in and grow our engineering consultancy business to deliver our five year business plan. The appointments of Hui Zhang and Martin Elbs reinforce Lotus Engineering's commitment to its external clients. We will also increase R&D in our four core competencies and expand our global presence with new offices in Germany and California."

Lotus Engineering is already investing in a number of exciting R&D projects including Ultra Boost. This recently announced project will develop a pressure-charged concept engine that has the performance of a 5.0 litre V8 naturally-aspirated engine with the emissions of a small displacement four cylinder engine. Ultra Boost is a three year project with partners including Shell, Jaguar Land Rover, leading UK academic institutions, and support from the government-backed Technology Strategy Board.

Also recently announced, the REEVolution project is another example of R&D taking place at Lotus Engineering. It draws on knowledge from each of Lotus Engineering's four core competencies and, together with consortium partners and the Technology Strategy Board, the project aims to deliver advanced Jaguar, Lotus and Nissan engineering demonstrator vehicles with sub 50g/km tailpipe CO₂ emissions.