LONDON — Lotus Vehicles has appointed its chief engineer, Matt Windle, to steer the automaker after CEO Phil Popham stepped down.
Popham will go away the corporate on the finish of March after lower than three years within the submit, Lotus stated in a statement.
The primary two initiatives that Lotus will see via to completion underneath Windle would be the Evija electric hypercar and a new sports car codenamed Type 131 that can be unveiled this summer time.
Popham stated Windle, who has a historical past with the UK sports-car maker of greater than 20 years, is a long-standing ‘Lotus Man.’
Windle, 49, joined Lotus in 1998 earlier than switching to Tesla in 2005 to work on its first automobile, the Roadster, which was created with assist from Lotus.
He then spent 5 years working for area of interest British sports-car makers Caterham and Zenos earlier than returning to Lotus in 2017. He was promoted to go of engineering in March 2020.
Popham, a former Jaguar Land Rover govt, joined Lotus as CEO in 2018, the 12 months after the corporate was purchased by China’s Geely Group. Popham spent 14 years at JLR in numerous roles that included international advertising director, international head of Land Rover and JLR UK head. He left the corporate in 2014 to turn into CEO of British luxurious yacht firm Sunseeker.
Lotus didn’t disclose Popham’s future plans.
Popham oversaw the implementation of the Vision80 plan which known as for a whole overhaul of the model and a extra international outlook.
The plan included phasing out manufacturing of all three of the model’s getting older sports activities vehicles this 12 months, in addition to growing the Evija and Kind 131.
Popham additionally helped to forge a partnership with Renault’s Alpine model that may see the 2 jointly develop a new electric sports car platform.
The plan additionally known as for the development of a brand new meeting corridor within the firm’s Hethel headquarters in Norfolk, England, as a part of a 100 million-pound ($136 million) funding within the web site.