Lotus Cars is British by birth and Chinese by ownership.
Lotus Technology completed the acquisition of 100 percent of the equity interests in Lotus Advance Technologies on 21 August 2026, bringing Lotus Cars under the Nasdaq-listed company and ending the 51/49 Geely and Etika ownership of the car business.
Where it sits
Two levels. A figure marks a company boundary crossed; a word means the figure was never published.
Lotus Cars
78 years, three owners
The year is coloured by whoever held it at the time.
- 1948 Colin Chapman built his first trials car in a lock-up in London, and formed the Lotus Engineering Company in 1952.
- 2017 Geely took 51 percent of Lotus and Etika Automotive took 49 percent, completing the purchase from Malaysia's DRB-HICOM.
- 2025 Etika Automotive and Geely's Hong Kong arm exercised put options requiring Nasdaq-listed Lotus Technology to buy the whole of the Lotus car business from them.
- 2026 On 10 June 2026 Geely's Hong Kong arm received 24,477,676 Lotus Technology ordinary shares and Etika Automotive 23,517,767, in each case from Lotus Group International Limited, as the consideration for the put options over the Lotus car business. This settled the price; the car business itself did not change hands until August.
- 2026 Lotus Technology completed the acquisition of 100 percent of the equity interests in Lotus Advance Technologies on 21 August 2026, bringing Lotus Cars under the Nasdaq-listed company and ending the 51/49 Geely and Etika ownership of the car business.
Lotus Technology
1 marque
The Nasdaq-listed company that bought the British sports car business outright from Geely and Etika in 2026. No company controls it: its founder holds the majority of the votes personally.
the United Kingdom 1
Lotus Cars