Lotus Cars to take on 200 extra staff

Lotus Cars is looking to employ an additional 200 staff to add to the 289 people already recruited during 2018.

The new positions are available at Lotus’s headquarters in Hethel, Norfolk, and an ‘engineering satellite office’ planned for Warwickshire.

Backed by Geely since 2017 after the Chinese car manufacturer took a 51 per cent controlling stake, Lotus currently employs 1,090 people worldwide, with the vast majority working at its Hethel HQ.

Many also work at the firm’s aluminium anodising facility in Wellingborough, as well as its aluminium sub-assemblies plant in Worcester.

The company is currently in the final assembly stages of its £1m Type 130 hypercar. Following a long line of other ‘Type’-series models, this latest car is likely to be the firm’s most advanced yet, while retaining the brand’s well-known attention to lightness.

It’s said to be the firm’s first car to use a carbon-fibre tub – one set to form the basis of future Lotus models. Using a hybrid powertrain, the Type 130 will develop in excess of 1,000bhp from four electric motors, say reports.

Of the 200 staff to be employed by Lotus, 30 will initially be based at the Warwickshire office.