Who Owns Lotus?

Lotus is owned by Geely of China, which holds a majority alongside the Malaysian group Etika Automotive. Companies House records the sports car maker at Hethel under a British holding company, with control changing there in 2019. Confusingly, there are now two Lotuses: the cars built in Norfolk, and Lotus Technology, an electric vehicle company listed on Nasdaq. Ownership verified 6 September 2026.

Who owns the Lotus brand?

The British company is LOTUS CARS LIMITED (00895081), incorporated 1 January 1967 and registered at Potash Lane, Hethel, Norwich — the airfield site Colin Chapman moved the company to in 1966.

Its person with significant control is Lotus Group International Limited (02831840), notified 11 March 2019. The entry it replaced, Group Lotus Limited (00606189), ceased on the same date.

Above the UK companies, Geely holds the majority — reported at 51% — with Etika Automotive of Malaysia holding the balance.

Parent company and ultimate owner

Geely Holding is the private Chinese group controlled by Li Shufu — the same individual named directly on the UK register as controlling Volvo Car UK, as this site’s Volvo page records.

So Lotus and Volvo Cars share an ultimate owner, and Polestar sits alongside both. Geely’s British holdings also include the London EV Company, which builds the black cab.

Etika Automotive’s involvement comes through the Malaysian connection: Proton owned Lotus for two decades, and Etika’s principals were involved in that ownership before the Geely purchase.

Brand owner vs operating company

This is where Lotus has become genuinely confusing, and the confusion is recent.

Lotus Cars at Hethel builds the sports cars — the Emira and its predecessors — and the engineering consultancy Lotus Engineering, which has designed and developed vehicles for other manufacturers for decades and is a substantial business in its own right.

Lotus Technology is a separate company, based in China, which makes the electric Eletre and Emeya and listed on Nasdaq in 2024 through a special purpose acquisition company. It has its own shareholders, including public investors.

Both use the Lotus name under Geely’s ownership. Buying shares in the Nasdaq-listed Lotus Technology does not buy a share of the Norfolk sports car business, and the two report separately.

When the ownership changed

Lotus has passed through more owners than almost any British marque, and spent much of its life in financial difficulty:

• 1948–82 — founded and run by Colin Chapman, who died in 1982.
• 1986 — bought by General Motors.
• 1993 — sold to Bugatti’s then owner, Romano Artioli — the same figure who appears on this site’s Bugatti page.
• 1996 — bought by Proton of Malaysia, which held it for two decades.
• 2017 — Geely buys a controlling stake from Proton, with Etika taking the remainder.
• 2019 — the UK holding structure is reorganised, which is what the register’s 11 March 2019 entry records.

Geely’s ownership has brought the largest investment in the company’s history, including a new factory at Hethel and the move into electric vehicles through Lotus Technology.

Related brands in the same group

Geely owns Lotus, Volvo Cars, Polestar, Geely Auto, Lynk & Co, Zeekr and the London EV Company, and holds a stake in Mercedes-Benz Group.

Lotus has no connection to Team Lotus in Formula One, which was a separate entity that ceased in 1994, or to the Lotus-branded F1 teams of the 2010s, which licensed the name. Nor to Lotus Bakeries, the Belgian biscuit company, or Lotus Cars’ many unrelated namesakes on the register — searching for “Lotus” returns thousands of businesses with no connection to Hethel.

Sources and verification

The UK company numbers, the 1967 incorporation, the PSC entries and the 11 March 2019 change are from the Companies House register.

The Geely and Etika percentages are not register-verified: Geely Holding is a private Chinese group and Etika is Malaysian, so those figures come from company announcements and reporting. Lotus Technology’s own ownership is disclosed through US securities filings following its 2024 listing, which is a separate record from anything on Companies House. Companies House does not verify most filed information.