Conversing with Lotus's Feng Qingfeng: How to Make the Math Work for a 30,000-Unit Profit?

Lotus Cars announced its latest 2030 Strategy, which is a major push for sales and profitability, as well as a strategic adjustment of technology and routes.

By 2030, Lotus Cars aims to achieve annual production and sales of 30,000 units.

At the same time, it is no longer stubbornly adhering to the pure electric route, but moving forward with pure electric, hybrid, and fuel options.

However, performance cars are currently facing unprecedented changes: numerous new brands are flooding in, and traditional narrative styles are declining.

Consumers are redefining the standards for what constitutes a true performance car.

In this changing landscape, how Lotus Cars reshapes its brand and recreates its products to break through from the changes is self-evidently challenging.

To implement the 2030 Strategy, Lotus Cars is already laying out plans in earnest.

A major trump card Lotus Cars holds now is leaning on the Geely Group system, enabling it to secure more strategic resources to fight continuously.

Additionally, advancing along pure electric, hybrid, and fuel lines simultaneously can also help Lotus Cars expand its consumer base and open up markets in more countries or regions.

For Lotus, a more pragmatic and global chessboard is gradually unfolding.

The following are the core contents of the interview; we edited them without changing the original meaning.

Core Interview Content

Question: For 2030 to achieve an annual production and sales scale of 30,000 units, what will be the approximate sales distribution ratio between domestic and overseas markets? Will the brand subsequently deepen its investment in fuel models? Is there any information you can reveal on this?

Feng Qingfeng: At this stage, Lotus's sales in the US market mainly rely on sports cars produced in the UK, where tariff levels are relatively low.

China-made models face higher tariff barriers. Although adjusted down from previous peaks, the overall resistance remains significant.

Regarding fuel vehicles, the main layout for sports cars in the future will be hybrid, but in markets with strong demand for fuel vehicles, hybrid models can switch to pure fuel versions, such as in the Middle East and Saudi Arabia. Fuel prices are low, charging infrastructure is weak, and there is still some demand for pure fuel models locally.

The overall plan is hybrids accounting for 60%, pure electric 40%, with limited demand for pure fuel models.

Question: What is the specific pace of hybrid models in the overseas market? Lotus Cars has entered the US, Canada, and Brazil markets in the Americas so far. What are the expansion plans for other regions next? Recent US-Canada-Mexico races have seen high popularity, and the Geely Group is also involved. Could you ask if Lotus plans to carry out related market actions?

Feng Qingfeng: Regarding the Canadian market, delivery will start very soon. We seized a great market opportunity because when we were doing global product development certification, we completed all North American certifications in 2024.

Previously, when we entered the US market, the Eletre model had already announced its price and opened orders. Order performance was very good; once prices were announced, orders reached 6,000 units at one point.

With the recent China-Canada trade agreement lowering tariffs, we were able to enter the Canadian market at the fastest speed.

The South American market will gradually unfold starting with Brazil.

Let's talk about the European market pace. We will officially announce prices and open reservations in Europe this June, with formal delivery in the fourth quarter.

The overseas launch schedule for For Me has been delayed. The main reason is that the vehicle is equipped with an engine and needs to complete new Euro 7 emission standard certification. The certification cycle is longer than in China.

Next year, we will complete more global market certifications and enter markets in Australia, Malaysia, etc.

Question: Lotus has previously outsourced or cooperated on custom powertrains. Will Type 135 continue the outsourced model, or develop engines independently, or develop jointly with Geely?

Feng Qingfeng: For over 70 years, Lotus has never developed its own engines; power is entirely outsourced. The classic 3.5-liter model was procured from Toyota, and the 2.0-liter model was also outsourced.

However, after all outsourced engines arrive, Lotus performs secondary performance modifications: removing redundant non-performance parts and installing self-developed components. This improves power output on one hand, and optimizes overall durability on the other. However, the outsourced modification model has long constrained brand development.

After joining the Geely system and coordinating with this Focus 2030 Strategy transformation, Geely is assisting Lotus in engine development.

HORSE Power released the V6 model at the Beijing Auto Show. In the future, V6 and V8 models will be jointly developed by Lotus, Geely, and HORSE.

High-performance sports cars have another major technical difficulty, known as the pearl on top of the automotive industry crown: high-torque DCT transmission.

High-torque AT is relatively easier to implement. High-performance DCT that can bear hundreds or even over a thousand Newton meters of torque has an extremely high R&D threshold.

Relying on the collaboration among Geely, HORSE, and Lotus, we have already conquered this transmission technology.

Holding a full set of self-developed power resources, we have the confidence to implement the Type 135 project.

High-end high-performance powertrains are basically monopolized by top manufacturers and are not sold externally. Key power cannot be outsourced; it must be independently developed within the group.

Question: Many competitors are now launching intelligent shooting brake and intelligent sports car models. Many brands that originally did not涉足 this field are also joining in. How do you view this phenomenon?

Feng Qingfeng: More and more brands entering the performance car market indicates that the high-end performance consumer market truly exists and has considerable potential. This is a good thing and can drive more consumers to pay attention to and recognize the performance car track.

Lotus has a unique advantage. The essence of performance cars is lightweighting. Whether the body weight can be reduced directly determines the performance ceiling.

If a sports car body is too heavy, the overall performance, especially handling performance, will not go up.

We also have a first-mover advantage in electrification. The Evija pure electric supercar we launched has 2,000 horsepower, 400-plus kilometers of pure electric range, an overall weight as low as 1.6 tons, and air downforce up to 1.8 tons.

So performance cars have very high barriers. It is not simply stacking horsepower that creates a true performance car. Performance in all dimensions such as steering, braking, chassis, and aerodynamics must match.

In the fuel era, automakers could stack up high horsepower, and basically all supporting performance would be maximized simultaneously. So horsepower was basically equivalent to performance then.

But now many new cars only stack up high horsepower. Core performance such as chassis, braking, lightweighting, and aerodynamics cannot keep up completely. This is a common industry misunderstanding.

For example, our For Me vehicle weight reaches 2.5 tons. Yet we can still achieve a braking distance of over 33 meters because we have taken all supporting performance to the extreme. This is a true performance car.

Lotus's moat and barriers are deep chassis tuning skills and extreme lightweighting technology. This is our unique differentiated advantage.

Question: In what aspects will you deepen collaboration and simplify redundancies with the Geely Group?

Feng Qingfeng: Looking at the global automotive industry, ultra-luxury brands developing relying on large groups generally have more stable development. For example, Ferrari belongs to the Stellantis Group, and Lamborghini belongs to the Volkswagen Group.

In contrast, ultra-luxury brands developing independently from the group system, their development status is also visible to all.

The main reason is that the group can share huge R&D costs.

It is now the era of software-defined vehicles. Electronic architecture and software R&D investment are extremely high.

If Lotus independently develops a new electronic architecture, the investment would need to reach at least the level of billions.

With our 30,000 units annual sales volume, we simply cannot cover costs and achieve profitability.

So in the future, we will fully rely on group collaboration on mechanical architecture, electronic architecture, and software systems, sharing R&D costs according to sales volume.

If all technologies are independently invested, the business model will not work at all. 30,000 units in sales simply cannot achieve profitability.

Based on group collaboration, Lotus will continue to focus on its own field, deepening chassis intelligence. Active chassis technology, which is currently popular, Lotus has already deep layout. For Me is equipped with a full set of active chassis, supporting personalized selection and intelligent dynamic adjustment.

Once traditional chassis tuning is completed, it is in a fixed state. Active chassis is "alive" and can actively adjust in real-time based on road conditions, driving style, road surface environments like rain and snow, and changes in road adhesion. This is the technology we continue to deepen.

Question: In the new 2030 plan, will Lotus release more affordable models as scheduled? Do affordable products fit the super-luxury brand positioning of Lotus?

Feng Qingfeng: It does not mean a low price represents low positioning.

Especially within the personalized market, some products have low prices but can satisfy personalized consumer groups.

Why can't Lotus launch a 300,000 to 400,000 RMB one, like Elise and Eletre? It is very compact, but still has high premiums.

Actually, we have always had a dream, which is to restore a product like Elise. Small, two-seater, very agile.

But do not be like the past where there were no life scenarios other than driving.

For example, when I was in the UK, I drove an Elise. Even the luggage compartment couldn't fit a suitcase, and I had to change to another car to go to the airport. So, some life scenarios need to be integrated.

From a product dimension perspective, we hope that after Type 135 is realized in the future, we can make a small product similar to Elise.

Question: In the 2030 Strategic Plan, does Lotus have plans to return to F1 racing?

Feng Qingfeng: For Lotus, including for me personally, I dream of getting in because the Lotus DNA in F1 is too strong.

We have also had a lot of communication with these F1 organizations. They also hope Lotus can return to F1.

However, I think we still need to adjust based on our commercial development. We are exploring and contacting. Especially how to enter becomes very important.

Everyone knows F1 has newly approved the Cadillac team. As for whether China can get a new team approved, this needs further discussion. It is not something that can be decided at once. But this is Lotus's dream. We still need to work hard for such a dream.

Question: Ferrari launched its first electric car. There were many negative reviews, even internal reactions were not optimistic, triggering questions about whether super-luxury brands should continue to launch pure electric cars. In this situation, how do we think about the prospect of Lotus Cars?

Feng Qingfeng: Beauty is in the eye of the beholder because everyone has their own beauty in their hearts.

I think Ferrari is also at the transition of eras and needs to do some exploration. Whether it is successful will be verified by the market in the future.

But I think it needs to do such exploration, just like Lotus.

We are now returning to hybrid power. Actually, this is also exploration we did for many years in the pure electric field.

I think any enterprise should pay the tuition fee when it's time to explore.

In the past, I heard from various sources that Ferrari would not do pure electric. But it could not resist the tide of the times and eventually entered this field.

How to enter, each enterprise has its own strategy.

Question: We possess advanced technologies such as motor lightweighting, motor non-heating, chassis, etc. Can these technologies be opened up? Can we also move towards the supply chain direction to perform technology reverse output and supply products or technologies to other OEMs?

Feng Qingfeng: These advanced technologies are not entirely developed independently by Lotus. Most are developed jointly with suppliers.

For example, V8, V6, hybrid power systems, and motors with higher energy density were all completed with supplier cooperation.

Regarding reverse output, we are certainly very open. In fact, Lotus announced in 2024 that it is willing to open our chassis technology to society comprehensively.

Question: Historically, it seems no automaker could achieve slight profit or balanced profit with an annual sales of 30,000 units. So for Lotus, this may be a very big challenge.

Feng Qingfeng: It is not that only selling 30,000 units can generate profit. Ferrari made a profit of 700 million Euros with sales of 10,000 units. Of course, it is a relatively special brand, with sales slightly over 10,000 units. It already had high profitability when reaching 8,000 units.

Look at Porsche again. When it first did not enter the life vehicle field, sales were only 30,000 to 50,000 units. It also achieved very good profitability.

So for Lotus, the key is how to build the brand well.

The first pillar is actually how to build the brand well to obtain better premiums and higher gross margins.

As for the cost aspect, let me give an example.

Production in Wuhan and in the UK, the cost difference is huge.

This is exactly because of synergy. With Geely's synergy in manufacturing and procurement, and the sharing of manufacturing expenses. In the UK, we can only share ourselves, so manufacturing costs are very high.

Let's say an exaggerated figure, it might be five times the cost of manufacturing in China.

Therefore, we hope to reduce manufacturing costs through massive synergy.

In fact, compared to 2024, our overall costs in 2025 have already decreased significantly. Next, we will still use this synergy to create a "small and beautiful" company. "Small" refers to low costs, and "beautiful" refers to profitability.

Past calculations indicated around 60,000 units because expenses were very high then. Now with more synergy support from Geely, our costs can drop significantly.

For example, electronic architecture. If we had to invest ourselves, we would need to invest over 10 billion. But through Geely's synergy, we only need to bear a part of the shared expense.

Question: From now on to achieve a sales target of 30,000 units, what changes do you think need to be made?

Feng Qingfeng: If we want to make Lotus like other competitors by pushing down prices from the start, our costs cannot do it. We simply cannot do it.

This is not just an issue of economies of scale. It is not that if scale goes up, it can be done.

The key is that our requirements for products are very high. If we were to lower requirements, we certainly could bring costs down.

I mean, if I scored 80 points, I could do it with a little effort. But as a performance car, our requirement must be above 98 points.

We will not lower requirements to control costs. This is not what Lotus can do, and our whole system cannot do such things.

Of course, we also conducted a review. Therefore, we launched hybrid models. This is a correction of the past.

As for sales growth, I believe this year and next year, with the launch of the Lotus For Me model, there will be a significant increase.

Because the market is expanding. For example, in China, those who bought Lotus in the past were mainly small business owners and bosses.

Now it has expanded to corporate executives, especially executives in the financial sector. This is an expansion of the crowd.

Additionally, our markets are also expanding. We will enter Europe this year. Next year we will enter Australia, the UK, Malaysia, and other countries.

At the same time, our electric vehicles sold poorly in the Middle East. The main reason is that oil prices there are very cheap.

But after For Me entered the Middle East, the response was very good. Plus our future Type 135 and other sports car plans, we hope these new products keep up with the times and can change our current sales situation.