Lotus Technology and the Road Ahead

Lotus provides one of the auto world’s aspirational driving experiences: low-profile, luxury, high-performance machines, designed equally for elegance and thrill. The brand, founded in the UK in 1948, has dramatically expanded its global footprint since Geely acquired a majority stake in 2017.

The following year, Lotus founded its battery electric vehicle business and committed to a radical transformation of the legacy brand with its Vision80, a long-term strategy dedicated to transforming Lotus into an all-electric, intelligent and luxury mobility provider before the company’s 80th anniversary in 2028.

Feng Qingfeng has had his hand in the brand’s development since Geely’s acquisition, becoming CEO in 2018. Feng started with Geely as a general manager in the 1990s, before the company entered China’s then-fledgling automotive market. In 1999, Geely managed sales of the Citroën Fukang, selling 10,000 units. In the first quarter of 2024, Geely was for the first time listed in the top 10 best-selling carmakers globally. The company, based in the city of Hangzhou on China’s east coast, also counts Volvo, Polestar and Zeekr among its brands.

We spoke with Feng about his experience contributing to China’s growing role in global automotive markets, his outlook for Lotus and the joy of driving.

“I drive all kinds of cars,” he says. “Any car I haven’t driven, I want to try.”

Can you talk about how you came up in Geely? What was your journey?

First, I did sales, then I started to manage manufacturing. After that I started to do research and development—R&D then was not based on a specific technology, but on a project. Managing a project like a new car meant managing the whole thing—factory construction, product development, technological progress and selling it. Procurement, supplier negotiations, factory construction, all of that.

It’s relatively easy to build cars in China now, but it was still difficult in that era. First, we hadn’t accumulated the technology. Second, we hadn’t developed the broader support structure. Many of the core technologies were still controlled in Europe, the United States or their joint ventures in China. We had to work with many local auto parts companies in China to develop these technologies, and then promote the technological progress of the entire industrial chain.

With success in that area, I began to manage our R&D institute, where I spent eight years.

Today, you could say that Chinese brands have not only caught up with the old traditional brands, but exceeded them in a short period. This is an incredible effort.

It’s a society-wide advancement, not just a certain company. Everyone had work to do, everyone continued to invest and improve. At that time, we had to overcome these technological bottlenecks, though they’re no longer any particular mystery now.

What made you decide to do this comprehensive transformation of Lotus to electric vehicles? Did you encounter resistance?

In 2018, the electric transition in China wasn’t yet in full swing, but the trend was clear, so it was easy to accept. Everyone understood already that this would be irreversible. In the UK, they still thought electrification was very far away—it took them until the following year.

A lot of people say that electric cars can be less fun to drive—other than the acceleration, there’s no magic, no roar of the engine. How can Lotus pass on the original advantages of its brand with electric and autonomous vehicles?

There are still lots of people who love fuel cars, so the acceptance may take time. But the core of the Lotus driving experience is in our lightweightness, aerodynamics and handling. In the electric era, horsepower is no longer a problem, but weight is. All the performance of the car is reflected in the weight—if you’re lighter, your control will be better, your acceleration will be better, your braking will be better, you can turn more accurately, more steadily.

This is what we have to overcome. The batteries are improving, the energy density is increasing, but the weight is still several hundred kilograms. We need to make the car lighter—and this is exactly the strength of Lotus. New technologies like active suspension can also help with this—compensating for the heavy weight.

Autonomous driving is also irreversible—it must be embraced, and Lotus is a global leader in autonomous driving tech. A few days ago, I sent a Weibo post that one of our drivers went 466 kilometers in one trip without taking over from autopilot. In China, we have almost reached the limit of the car’s power at more than 500 kilometers, completely without human intervention.

I think autonomous driving actually improves driving pleasure. We don’t always want to drive—who wants to be stuck inching forward in city traffic? Isn’t it better to let the machine drive then? Highway driving is the same—it’s boring. After driving on the highway for two hours, I’m tired. But on the other hand, I can drive all day on a mountain road and never get tired, because it’s fun. The more you drive there, the more energetic you feel.

So I don’t think autonomous driving will affect driving pleasure. Let the machines drive in the boring scenarios and save the fun scenarios for us.

So the car is not just a tool, but a toy. That’s an interesting view, that the machines still serve people, rather than that they’re going to replace people.

Yes. Even in the era of automation, the performance requirements are still the same as well. Even without a driver, we are still pursuing higher speeds and higher safety, with more demanding performance requirements to meet drivers’ needs.

As vehicles electrify and automate, does their design evolve as well? Aerodynamics must stay the same, but are there new considerations?

In fact, vehicle shapes have been evolving. We’ve maintained the heritage of our original mid-mounted engine style, with a very short and sporty front, which is in line with electrification because we don’t need to install the engine in the front. This allows us to adjust the whole cabin, with low steering at the front of the cockpit, giving more precise handling closer to the wheels in the classic Lotus style.

The second thing we pursue is beauty. I often talk about the proportions of vehicles in terms of a few ratios—like how our wheels take up half the height of the vehicle. It’s similar to why people think long legs look beautiful—it’s all about proportions. The same is true for axle length ratios, or the ratio of width to height—the longer and more low-slung it is, the more beautiful the car will be.

Lotus is a high-end legacy brand, where Geely is really a challenger to such traditional names. Chinese brands as a whole are challengers to big factories and brands in Europe or the United States. How do you think about this?

Again, on some level this is inevitable—any growing company must expand. China’s consumption has grown and the car market has developed, with more and bigger cars to meet Chinese drivers’ preferences. The technology has also developed—products and technologies can now be developed entirely in China, and done even better than in other places.

With this, Chinese cars have grown better and better as consumers have grown more and more discerning. I remember going to Korea on a business trip with Li Shufu in 2007—all I saw were South Korean cars. I said, “When will China have all Chinese cars?” He said, “If we do a good job making the cars, it will happen naturally. If you don’t do a good job, consumers aren’t going to buy a mediocre car for sentimental reasons.”

China is now in a transformational era, where Chinese consumers have begun to see that China’s technology is no longer inferior to others and can meet their needs. So the conditions are mature, from technology to consumer mentality. Like Li Shufu said, as long are you are competitive, people will naturally want to buy your brand. That time has come, including at the high end of the market.

What does that mean for Lotus?

The higher up you go, the more divided the market is. We think of the 500,000 RMB mark as a watershed. That’s where Lotus sits. Over 500K, you need to personalize and meet different people’s individual needs. Personalization will become more and more sub-divided. For Lotus, our personalization lies in our handling on the track—it is more fun for the driver.

The environment this year is not particularly good, with the US election and the EU investigation of China electric vehicle subsidies. Where do you think your biggest potential growth market will be?

Our development is well-balanced across our four key markets in Europe, China, US and the rest of the world. In the long term, though, the largest potential lies in the US, as the largest luxury car market. The US is wealthy, and Americans are very keen consumers of luxury cars, with a strong car culture. China hasn’t fully established this yet, and Chinese drivers are very different from US and EU drivers—they haven’t built up the same driving habits, or distinctive preferences.

Americans like horsepower and muscle cars. Europeans like handling, with their tight roads. Brits like classic cars. Every country has its own culture, but Chinese car culture hasn’t been established—it just hasn’t had enough time yet, but more and more people are beginning to like it. The US is still our biggest opportunity, and our sports cars are selling very well there. Even with a tariff of 100%, we have to adjust our strategy and come up with a solution.

What do you think are the next groundbreaking changes coming for the automotive industry? What are you excited about?

For the user experience, the biggest thing is that automation is getting better and better. We have a “charm index,” and our research shows that every time we’ve done OTA updates of our autonomous driving software, we’ve seen a big jump in user satisfaction.

The future is in intelligence and automation, and it will come sooner than you think. The evolution will shift from a quantitative change to a qualitative one—once it hits a certain point, the experience will change completely.

After leading Lotus since 2018, what do you enjoy most?

There are two aspects—our drivers and our technicians. I enjoy spending time with our customers. They challenge you and they inspire you, because they are not thinking in a limited way like an industry professional. Their unrestrained feedback and imagination provide inspiration. I also love to discuss with our technicians, figuring out how we can make Lotus cars better and make our drivers happier.

And of course, I love driving the cars. Not with speed limits on the highway, but on mountain tracks, where the fun is.