We are living in troubled times for the world in general and the motor industry in particular but there can be no doubt that Lotus are in the safest possible hands with Mike Kimberley at the helm. "Cut me in half and you will find I’m green and yellow all the way through" says the man who cares passionately about Lotus – both the company and the people – the country, and yes, the environment too.

Mike returned to Lotus a couple of years ago after a 13-year break working for the likes of Lamborghini and General Motors, being appointed Acting CEO initially, by present-day owners Proton.

Says Mike, "I did a complete audit of the company, finance, products, engineering, the whole works, and KPMG backed me up. Since that time, as a team, we have turned the company around from a seven-million pound loss to a two-million profit up to 31 March this year.

"I set myself four objectives, the first one being to build a strategic business plan for the shareholders to review – I usually work to a seven-year plan but the shareholders wanted five so that’s what we did. That was approved in February 2007. At the same time I asked the Group Board and shareholders to recapitalise the company and strengthen the balance sheet. They wrote-off nearly sixty-million pounds, ten years’ of accumulated debts and loans."

The next step was to ensure that production remained at Hethel, as there was pressure to reduce costs by transfering build of the Europa and new Esprit overseas, with production in Asia, Ireland and even Holland having been considered at times. Mike resisted this, partly out of loyalty to the employees (of whom he is immensely proud) and partly marketing reasons; research having shown that customers in America and Japan, particularly, would be turned away by the notion. It hasn’t always been easy maintaining such a stance though, with Mike having some very forthright things to say about the way in which the current Government treats industry, considering there is no incentive to do things. Despite what the EU says, governments in countries such as France, Germany and Italy do help their industries. He cites a couple of recent examples whereby Lotus was hit by a massive retrospective hike in Business Rates, hotly followed by a pensions surcharge, which had a very real effect on the company:

"Out of the blue they demanded £706,000, which we had to pay. It has forced me to cancel one of the export variant projects for the Far East with a loss of six or seven jobs. I simply don’t have the capacity to keep paying the Government."

Contrasting the manner in which other countries support their industry in comparison with Britain, Mike has a wonderful analogy – "in this country we play cricket, whilst they play rugger. They pick the ball up and run with it whilst we try to hit it with a little stick – and I like cricket too!"

Nevertheless, Lotus has battled on, continuing to sell cars despite the current worldwide recession. Sales to September were actually slightly up, in stark contrast to most competitors. October and November saw a slump, partially due to the impending VAT reduction, but have picked-up again this month (December). America, however, has been in meltdown, the dealers having been particularly hardly hit by the cessation of loans and finance.

The factory was certainly busy at the time of our visit, with a healthy mix of Elise, Exige, Europa, 2-Eleven and Tesla models being built. The Evora is on schedule too; build of the last of 33 VP (validation prototypes) had been completed at the time of our visit, with production due to begin after the Christmas and New Year break, bang on target.

Mike uses the example of how rapidly the Evora has been brought to market as a contrast to the way in which things were being done prior to his return. Having looked at what was happening with the much talked-about Esprit replacement he realised something had to be done. The jump from Elise/Exige to Esprit would be a big one for customers and he decided that something in between was needed, before the new Esprit came along, settling on the idea of a 2+2, V6-powered, mid-engined car, something that nobody else was doing at the time. Called Project Eagle, 19 experimental prototypes were built in the space of 14 months and the whole project has progressed from a sketch to start of production in the space of 25 months.

Things were a little different with the Esprit, however. "When I rejoined the company, says Mike, "I assessed the car that was supposed to be the Esprit replacement. Having driven the prototype mules – they weren’t prototypes, just two mules based on Esprits – I had them backwards in the ditch twice, and this was after two and a half years’ work! I decided it needed a major amount of work to build-in the Lotus DNA. So, in the same length of time that there were only two old Esprits running around previously, we have turned out a whole new car (the Evora), whole new concept, completely different structure, beautifully forged aluminium wishbones. The whole car is low mass, high performance, ecological motoring – you can have tremendously enthusiastic performance and at the same time guilt-free ecologically. If you want a race version you can have one, but the car is designed as more of a lifestyle car that you can drive every day.

"Roger Becker has been driving that programme – he is Mr Ride & Handling, Mr Vehicle Dynamics of the World. I made Roger into a Director and now a Group Board Director; it was long overdue and well deserved.

On the subject of new cars, we wondered if an S3 Elise might be on the cards; given the current climate, perhaps the focus would turn towards smaller, cheaper cars, pushing the long-awaited Esprit even further back in time? No comment, was the unequivocal answer. Mike backed-up that response: "Let me say, at the moment, it is not top of my priority list. The Elise/Exige are unique – the Exige S is brilliant! You drive that and you will not want to get out of it. Just an incredible car and how do you better that?

Of course, building cars is only part of the Lotus operation, for the Engineering business is renowned throughout the world. That part of the Group had its hard times too, during Mike’s absence. During General Motors’ ownership virtually all of their output was related to GM products, and subsequently a similar situation applied for Proton. Now things are different. Last year work for Proton accounted for just 3 or 4% of total revenue, with the rest coming from third parties. To date, this hasn’t been affected by the financial crisis with no projects having been cancelled, although some projected ones have been put on hold. In fact, Mike claims his biggest problem is finding engineers, surmising that he might have to turn his attentions abroad to fill posts. Lotus does of course have partnerships and joint ventures in this respect in other parts of the world, such as Malaysia, USA and China. This has many benefits, not the least being time saving, with design offices in different time-zones effectively turning things into a round-the-clock operation, cutting down lead times etc.

With the search for alternative power sources being most important, Lotus Engineering is currently working on no less than five electric vehicle projects, four hybrids and various biofuels. Mike is quick to point out just how ahead of the game Lotus has been; "Colin Chapman’s Lotus DNA philosophy was right. Everyone used to castigate him for his low mass, high performance philosophy, but that’s the way to go for the future. Cars are much more ecological with lower weight, smaller engines, much better performance, much better fuel economy, much better CO2, much better ride and handling . So, all our DNA was given us by our Founder.

Lotus of course also produce chassis for the electric-powered Tesla, although not the powertrain. The Tesla currently (no joke intended!) has an impressive range of 220 miles, but until battery technology improves Mike really only sees electric power as a realistic option for city cars, favouring hybrids. Bio-fuel have not received good press in recent times, but there are programmes to develop crops that would grow in arid lands which would have the dual benefit of both bringing arid land into use and providing fuel.

There’s even a little bit of, if you like, reverse engineering going on. A problem with electric cars is that they are virtually inaudible – a problem for the deaf and the elderly. "We’ve got a noise synthesiser that we are just about to licence for a major global player" explains Mike. "It’s an anti-noise system that takes noise out of the car; it makes it quiet in the car without all the mass of sound deadening material, saving weight. All it is, is a little chip and some clever circuitry. Similarly we have an electric car that with the flick of a switch can be made to sound like a diesel outside.

Somewhat poignantly, our visit to Hethel took place on 16 December, 26 years to the day since Colin Chapman so tragically died – and also the day Mike found himself unexpectedly heading the company first time around. Again, these were dark days, with an oil crisis in full swing and Lotus was going through one of its periodic financial crises, but it was an early client of the Engineering division that came to the rescue.

Explains Mike, "Everybody was losing money and we couldn’t get anybody to invest in the company, so I went to see our friends at Toyota – we were carrying out some engineering work for them at the time. The Chairman and President said ‘if we advance funding on one of our projects, would that help? Before I even got on the ‘plane home the money had been wired through to our bank. That’s the sort of trust we had developed and it continues to this day. They saved the company and if it hadn’t been for Toyota I wouldn’t be sitting here today.

Indeed, that relationship is ongoing with Toyota supplying engine and transmissions, including the V6 for the new Evora. They are perfectly happy for Lotus to do their own calibration work too.

Mike Kimberley is above all else an enthusiast – he even owns an S4 Esprit jointly with his son and is a regular contributor to the Esprit Forum. "Lotus owners and enthusiasts are some of my favourite people! he states, adding "When I came back here I considered they were not really being looked after by the factory, yet the owners along with the dealers - or some of them(!) – are the best ambassadors we have. The Bell & Colville’s of this world are part of the family, as dealers – they are real people. We reckon that of the 87,000 + cars built in our entire history, some 55-60,000 still exist, lovingly cared for.. Let's face it, once we started zinc-dipping the backbone chassis you got something that lasted forever and today of course with the Elise/Exige lightweight structures and composite bodies they will be there for ever. They are such fun to drive and ecologically correct – I think Lotus has the right ingredients to help it through what is going to be a very, very tough, difficult period..

With Christmas just around the corner, we couldn’t resist one last, light-hearted question – if he were to find the car of his dreams, other than a Lotus, under his Christmas tree, what would it be? "An original E-Type Jaguar" was the swift answer – but there then followed a long list of other delectable machinery ranging from Aston Martin to Pontiac Firebird.

Yes, Mike’s a petrolhead just like the rest of us. So long as he remains at the helm of the company, the spirit of Colin Chapman will be very much alive.

John Elwin

December 2008