proton will sell lotus in 2011, malaysia proton - Lotus Boss Wants Malaysian Parent Proton to Sell: Malaysian automaker Proton, which bought Lotus in 1996, is finally receiving help from Lotus to develop a range of cars; a small city car shown at the Paris Motor Show last fall will be one of the cars shared by the two companies. Lotus needs a city car to help it meet new, more stringent fuel consumption regulations, just like Aston Martin needs the Toyota iQ-based Cygnet.
According to Danny Bahar, Lotus CEO, Proton “is getting the benefit (of owning Lotus) for the first time,” and he claims the new hatchback will look just like the concept, assuming it happens at all.
Lotus needs its five-year plan to succeed if it wants to survive in the long-term. Although owned by Proton, Bahar feels Lotus’s cars are too distant from Proton’s compact car lineup to be able to co-develop future cars that meet stricter emission and crash regulations.
Even though it’s not up to him, Bahar would like Proton to sell Lotus to a larger manufacturer such as Toyota. This would give Proton and other investors a way out. Toyota may be the smart way to go because of Lotus’s extensive use of Toyota engines in its current cars.
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