As he launches the most Lotus-ish Lotus ever, the super-light and fighting-fit 3-Eleven, Lotus boss Jean-Marc Gales takes some time to justify to TopGear what must be the least Lotus-ish Lotus ever: the upcoming, Chinese-built SUV crossover.
The SUV will be the result of a joint venture Lotus signed last year with Goldstar Heavy Industrial of Quanzhou city. Mind you, if it ever goes on sale in Britain, it won't be until about 2022. So if you furiously judge this a Lotus sell-out, you still have several years for your anger to subside.
Of course Gales believes that making an SUV will bolster profit. Building an SUV is standard operating procedure for a sports-car company these days, right?
And in most of its 63 years, Lotus has shown the opposite of profit. But Gales reckons an SUV will do something else too: improve the sports cars.
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