Lotus is the latest automaker to walk back its all-electric ambitions, a move that is typically a painful setback. But the niche British automaker may have received a boost from a new trade deal.
Lotus, founded in 1952 in England as a small sports car maker and owned by China’s Geely (0175.HK) since 2017, announced a strategic reset that it calls Focus 2030. Lotus will shift from an all-EV future to one focused on a “mixed powertrain lineup” featuring hybrid-powered gas cars and EVs.
The announcement came alongside the news that Geely had shipped 18 Lotus Eletre electric SUVs to Canada, becoming the first automaker to export China-made EVs to that market under a new trans-Pacific trade deal.
The Lotus Evija Fittipaldi tribute to the Lotus 72, driven to victory by Emerson Fittipaldi in the 1972 F1 season, limited-edition electric sports car on display at the AutoSalon press preview on Jan. 9, 2026, in Brussels, Belgium. (Sjoerd van der Wal/Getty Images) · Sjoerd van der Wal via Getty Images
Lotus spent much of the past four years building out a full EV portfolio — the Eletre SUV, Emeya GT sedan, and $2 million-plus Evija hypercar — and positioning itself as a high-performance electric brand. Its current gas-powered sports car, the well-regarded Emira, would eventually be phased out.
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But uneven demand for expensive EVs forced a new plan. Focus 2030 keeps all current vehicles in the lineup, adds new powertrains to those cars, and introduces new vehicles, aiming for a 60-40 split in favor of plug-in hybrids over pure electrics.
“It’s just a strategic transition. It’s a reflection of the market demand,” Lotus CFO Daxue Wang said in an interview with Yahoo Finance, adding that eventually he sees “full electric mobility” coming, but didn’t say when that would be.
People view the Lotus ForMe plug-in hybrid during the 2026 Beijing International Automotive Exhibition on April 24, 2026, in Beijing, China. (VCG/VCG via Getty Images) · VCG via Getty Images
Part of the equation to help boost sales is a new proprietary system Lotus calls X-Hybrid. The technology debuted on the Eletre X, sold in China under the name ForMe, offering 952 horsepower, an EV-only range of 217 miles, and a combined range exceeding 745 miles. More than 1,000 preorders were placed in China within the first month of availability. European customer deliveries are scheduled for the fourth quarter of 2026.
“This hybrid represents an entirely new proposition in the market, featuring a larger battery and a more thermally efficient engine,” Wang said. “It merges with our proven ICE [internal combustion engine] and BEV [battery electric vehicle] performance engineering heritage, delivering extended range and greater versatility and sustained higher performance.”
The headline product announcement, however, is the Type 135 — a hybrid V8 supercar producing more than 1,000 horsepower, confirmed for a 2028 launch, with price and market availability coming soon.
A teaser image of the upcoming V8 hybrid-powered Lotus, codenamed Type 135. · Lotus
On the financial side, Focus 2030 targets 30,000 annual sales units as the threshold for sustained profitability — a figure the company has not yet reached. Lotus also confirmed it is merging its two operating entities, Lotus UK and Lotus Technology in China, into a single corporate structure before the year’s end, a move the company said will reduce costs and streamline engineering integration.
While the aforementioned Canadian shipment of 18 Eletres sent from China on May 7 is small, it is nonetheless strategically significant.
It follows Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney’s January agreement to allow up to 49,000 Chinese-built EVs per year into Canada at a 6.1% rate, a deal struck partly to repair ties with Beijing after Canada imposed 100% tariffs on EVs, following the US.
But with a new trade deal in hand, Lotus is looking to expand in Canada, where EVs are still popular.
The Lotus Emira, Lotus Emeya, and Lotus Eletre are on display at the AutoSalon on Jan. 10, 2025, in Brussels, Belgium. (Sjoerd van der Wal/Getty Images) · Sjoerd van der Wal via Getty Images
“So leveraging our existing dealer network and North American market access certification, which we completed back in 2024, Lotus has secured a first-mover advantage up to now,” Wang said of the Canadian entry. “So we expect that strong sales growth there in Canada.”
Perhaps a trade deal during President Trump’s visit to China might make the Eletre more attractive in the US too, where Wang said the Eletre remains the only Chinese-made electric vehicle priced above $80,000 that has been fully certified for the US market.
On the nonelectrified front, the Emira, Lotus’s mid-engine combustion sports car, is also confirmed to continue, with an updated, lighter, and more powerful version set to debut in the coming weeks.
Pras Subramanian is Lead Auto Reporter for Yahoo Finance. You can follow him on X and on Instagram.
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