Cash-Strapped Lotus Raises Its Hand to Build Polestar 6 Roadster
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Lotus Europe has a new boss, and he has some thoughts as to how the brand can make more money: build electric roadsters for Polestar.
In an interview with Autocar , new Lotus chief Matt Windle says he plans to build non-Lotus vehicles at the company's Hethel, U.K. plant, which has the capacity to crank out 10,000 cars annually. And with both Lotus and Polestar being part of the Geely conglomerate of automakers, the latter's upcoming 6 convertible would be quite a good fit given Lotus' pedigree.
'I think we could build it,' Windle told Autocar , and if you ask us, a Lotus-assembled Polestar 6 would spiritually be more of a Lotus than Lotus' most recent models in the Eletre SUV and Emeya sedan. The Hethel factory. Lotus Andrew Shaylor
To be fair, it's hard to make money as a boutique British automaker even in the best of times. And in the era it now finds itself in, the company recently announced 270 job cuts, canceled the aforementioned EVs in the U.S., and stopped shipping Emiras here—Lotus is frankly just doing what a lot of people are too and looking into alternative revenue streams. (What do you mean I can't use press cars to do Uber Eats?)
That said, working on non-Lotus vehicles is not a new Lotus development. The old Vauxhall VX220 and original Tesla Roadster were both Elise-based and built (the latter's chassis, at least) at Hethel. Throughout the years, many other cars were also engineered with chassis and suspension input from Lotus, including the R35 Nissan GT-R, Aston Martin DB9, and, believe it or not, the 2009 Kia Soul that was sold in the U.K.
If the Polestar 6 does become the next car to join Lotus' long resume of side projects, it'll likely be a while until any actual cars roll off the line. Polestar delayed the 6 back in January in favor of the 7 SUV. It was originally slated for 2026. Polestar 6 LA Concept edition. Polestar
When or if it does arrive, it'll be a two-door, four-seat electric convertible. Said to use an 800-volt architecture, it'll apparently make 884 horsepower and 664 lb-ft of torque. So far, it's only existed in concept form, and Polestar unveiled a track-focused version called the Concept BST at last year's Goodwood Festival of Speed.
No, BST does not stand for British Standard Time but is a shortening of the word 'beast.' Not sure why Polestar's performance suffix isn't simply Beast because that sounds way cooler than BST, but there you go.
Got a tip or question for the author? You can reach him here: chris.tsui@thedrive.com
Chris Tsui is The Drive's Reviews Editor. He oversees the site's car reviews operation in addition to pitching in on industry news and writing his own evaluations of the latest rides. He lives in Toronto.
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