Despite the recent news that Lotus will delay models and may be in financial trouble, its Malaysian owner Proton has said it won’t sell the British sports car manufacturer. Syed Tahir, Proton group managing director, has stated, 'We will make sure that Lotus will work and we must ensure Lotus is a success; there is no other way.'

He also said there would be a restructure at Lotus that would result in the loss of some jobs and the implementation of a new strategic plan that would grow the company’s engineering business and develop alliances with other firms. Approximately 20 percent of the workforce are expected to be made redundant.

These changes are also partly related to the slowdown in Lotus’ biggest market, the US. Lotus is thought to be developing the new Esprit, a mid-performance car, and a Lotus-Proton high performance model that will likely be sold in Malaysia only.

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