Lotus Cars Relocating U.S. Headquarters to Michigan

Lotus Cars USA is moving its headquarters from Georgia to Michigan.

The U.K.-headquartered company says the move from Lawrenceville to share facilities with Lotus Engineering in Ann Arbor, MI, puts it at the heart of the U.S. auto industry.

Group Lotus CEO Jean-Marc Gales says the move ensures both divisions can grow their individual operations while benefiting from improved efficiency through sharing a number of business functions.

The move is expected to be completed by the end of July.

“North America, as the largest sports car market in the world, is important for Lotus, both for model sales and for our engineering consultancy business,” Gales says in a statement.

“By having both of our U.S. organizations located in Michigan, we shall be within the heartland of the U.S. automotive sector, where the headquarters of some of the most important, influential and significant automotive manufacturers and suppliers are based.

“This will reaffirm our presence in the North American market, by providing improved customer service (and) better technical and consultancy support, while ensuring that we have access to a skills base not found anywhere else in the territory,” he says.

Lotus, owned by the Proton automaking subsidiary of Malaysia’s DRB-Hicom, has expanded its dealer network to 47 outlets with the recent addition of four new dealers in California, Arizona and Alberta, Canada.

It will launch its Lotus Evora 400, unveiled at the Geneva Show in March, as a ’17 North American model in December.