For such a tiny automaker, Lotus has big plans for the future – no less than five new or completely revised model lines are on the British company’s to-do list, not to mention short term projects like the Exige S and Evora GTE.

Unfortunately, the development of all those cars will be put on hold for a temporary “lockdown” period, EVO reports. It seems that following the Malaysian government’s sale of its controlling stake in Lotus’ parent company, Proton, to Malaysian industrial
 conglomerate DRB-Hicom, government regulations necessitate a 60-day “lockdown” in which anything outside of normal business activities must cease.

Even at the end of the development halt, there’s no guarantee that DRB-Hicom will sign off on Lotus’ future product plans – or even retain ownership of the automaker. Lotus CEO Danny Bahar is reportedly engaged in extensive talks with DRB-Hicom to safeguard the automaker’s future.

“This difficult period for Lotus finishes at the end of March and that’s 
when we will know then whether DRB-Hicom will want to continue with our 
business plan,” Bahar said. “I really hope they will but I cannot call it at the moment, it’s still 50:50.”

China's Zhejiang Geely Holding Group is prepared to invest the necessary funds to make Lotus into a world-beating luxury and sports car brand. If Geely has its way, Lotus will be England's Porsche. And the Chinese automaker could dump as much as $2 billion into the brand to begin the process.

According to a Bloomberg report published Thursday, Geely is considering the massive investment amount to add new Lotus facilities in the United Kingdom. Sources close to the plans said Geely is in talks with its Malaysian partner Etika Automotive Sdn Bhd. to purchase more than the 51-percent stake in Lotus it currently holds as well.

In phase one of the investment, the Lotus plant in Hethel would expand and hire 200 more engineers. Then Geely would construct a second plant in U.K, most likely in the West Midlands region. A new design and innovation center would join the plant, perhaps in Coventry. Bloomberg's did not provide information on product investment, but Lotus' lineup is in for an overhaul.

We know two new sports cars are in the pipeline for 2020, per former Lotus CEO Jean-Marc Gales, and the brand will then launch an SUV one or two years later. After the first SUV, Lotus won't stop there; the brand has plans for more than one SUV. And one of the sports cars planned may just end up being a supercar akin to the Esprit. It would serve as the brand's flagship.

Geely purchased a major stake in Lotus' former owner Proton last September, a deal in which it also agreed to buy the British sports car brand in the process.

The Lotus Elise will soon be no more. After an impressive 25-year production run, the purist sports car is heading off into the sunset. Known for its lightweight, razor-sharp handling, and unique appearance inside and out, the Elise and its hardtop-only sibling, the Exige, will soon be replaced by the just-announced Lotus Emira, the firm's final gasoline-engined model. The Evora is also on its way out the door. Despite its age, Lotus detects there could still be potential interest from certain parts of the industry to gain access to the Elise's tooling. This wouldn't be without precedent. The first-generation Tesla Roadster was really a heavily modified Elise.

Automotive News Europe was told by Lotus managing director, Matt Windle, the firm would be open to the idea of selling the car's tooling yet again.

"If the right project and the right partner came along, I do not see why not. It's a wonderful car," Windle said. One possible customer is Caterham who just happens to be Windle's former employer. He served as the company's body engineer for two years before joining Lotus in 2017. Since 1973, Caterham, which was recently bought by a Japanese import and distribution firm, has built a version of the old Lotus Seven track car which it regularly updates.

The Seven definitely isn't for everyone but still finds a sufficient number of buyers as a Caterham. But Caterham is supposedly working on its future plans under new ownership. Moving on, or, at the very least, expanding its lineup, should happen sometime, and a re-tooled Elise could be the perfect fit.

Windle refused to say whether his current and former employer are holding talks about the subject. Another potential Elise customer is the newly revived British coachbuilder Radford, famous back in the day for modifying original Minis. One of its new co-founders is former Formula 1 driver and world champion Jenson Button. The decision to discontinue the Elise wasn't an easy one for Lotus.

"The truth is that the whole of the manufacturing facility at Hethel is being transformed into an automated process," Windle said. "We just did not have the room to produce the Elise." The fact Lotus is keeping the door open to sell the Elise's core elements to another firm gives us hope the little sports car still has a future.

Born Hazel Williams, she met Chapman at a dance in 1944, and Chapman's first car – what became known as the Lotus Mark 1 – was built around an Austin 7 chassis in a lock-up garage at the rear of her parents' house in Hornsey, North London, in 1948.

She took over the development of the trials car and its Ford-powered successor, the Mark 2, after Colin was briefly commissioned into the Royal Air Force. Their successes as drivers with these cars and the Mk3 Formula 750 car, the first true Lotus, that followed resulted commissions for further cars.

The first Lotus business was formed on 1 January, 1952 and a limited company set up the following year with a payment of £25 from Hazel.

She married Chapman in 1954 and as the Lotus organization grew she took a seat on the boards of a number of its companies, including the Team Lotus Formula 1 squad, the Lotus Cars sportscar marque and Lotus Components, which manufactured cars for the junior racing categories.

Hazel played a matriarchal role in the success of the F1 team, which claimed six world drivers' championships and seven constructors' crowns through the 1960s and '70s.

She prided herself on working with almost every Lotus grand prix driver throughout the team's history. They included its world champions – Jim Clark, Graham Hill, Jochen Rindt, Emerson Fittipaldi and Mario Andretti – as well as Nigel Mansell and Ayrton Senna.

When Colin Chapman died in 1982, Hazel recognized that Lotus Cars needed new investment to secure its future and played a key role in the sale of equity to a group lead by British Car Auctions.

The F1 team remained in family ownership until the end of the 1990 season, and after its demise in 1994, Hazel became a director of Classic Team Lotus, the family business that preserves the cars and the legacy of the brand's racing successes to this day under the management of son Clive.

Hazel maintained a key interest in all things Lotus and as recently as 2018 signed off the 100,000th road car produced by the marque. Tradition dictated that she was shown every new road car prior to it being unveiled to the public.

Matt Windle, managing director of Lotus Cars, said: “This is a very sad day for everyone around the world associated with Lotus. Without Hazel Chapman there would be no Lotus."

Hazel was also one of the founders of the Dog House women's motor racing charity along with Bette Hill, wife of Graham.

Lotus rolled out the final three examples of a trio of cars that represent almost half of the company’s total production ever: the Elise, Exige, and Evora. Together they made up 51,738 sales and kept the company going through good times and bad. But the three will be no more, Lotus says, as the company plunges ahead into an electric future.

Well, electric except for the mid-engine Emira, which is based on a modified version of the same platform and will be powered by a familiar Toyota-based 3.5-liter gasoline engine or an AMG 2.0-liter four. That comes out next spring, followed by the all-electric Evija hypercar. More on those at a later date. Right now we come not to bury the Es, but to praise them.

Elise, Exige, and Evora were built over the course of 26 years in Hethel, UK. The Elise and Exige shared the same “small car platform” that carried the Opel Speedster/Vauxhall VX220 and those very first Tesla Roadsters, of which 2005 were built between 2007 and 2012. So it was a big day in Hethel. The Evora was on the Big Car Platform.