Lotus is growing again, but its latest half-year results also confirm how radically the British sports-car brand has had to rewrite its future. Deliveries rose 39% in the first half of 2026, yet Europe went backward, losses remain heavy, and the parent company, Geely, has had to inject another $128 million. The all-electric revolution is over. Now comes the rescue plan.
Lotus delivered 3,904 cars in the first six months of 2026, up 39% year-on-year, while revenue increased 23% to $268 million. Gross margin improved from 8% to 10%. But the recovery is being driven primarily by China and by something Lotus once thought it would not need: plug-in hybrids.
European deliveries falling
Chinese deliveries jumped 60% to 2,248 cars, now representing 58% of Lotus’s worldwide volume. Europe, traditionally the natural home market for the British marque, moved in the opposite direction. Deliveries fell 17% to just 716 cars, reducing Europe’s share from 31% to 18%.
Central to the new strategy is the Eletre X plug-in hybrid. It has already gone on sale in China and several other markets, and it will reach mainland Europe in the fourth quarter.
Its reception helps explain why Lotus has abandoned its ambition to become an all-electric manufacturer by 2028. Under the new Focus 2030 strategy, Lotus now envisages roughly 60% hybrids and 40% battery-electric cars by 2028.
That is a remarkable reversal. In 2024, Lotus investor presentations still envisaged annual volumes of 40,000 to 50,000 Eletres, 30,000 to 40,000 Emeyas, and no fewer than 70,000 to 80,000 units of the planned electric Type 134 SUV.
Every new model electric?
Every new model after 2022 was supposed to be fully electric. Today, the whole company is targeting only around 30,000 cars annually by 2028. Last year it sold 6,520.
Even Lotus’ sports-car strategy has been rewritten. The Emira, introduced as its last combustion-engine sports car, stays in production. And Type 135, previously planned as a battery-electric sports car for 2026, has become a mid-engined V8 hybrid supercar scheduled for 2028. The financial figures explain some of that urgency. Lotus Tech reduced its reported operating loss from $263 million to $97 million.
However, almost $100 million of that improvement came from a one-off license-fee refund. Without it, the operating loss would still have been $195 million. Net loss amounted to $151 million on revenue of only $268 million. Geely’s continued backing is therefore crucial. In June, the Chinese group agreed to provide another $128.3 million through a convertible note.
Lotus Tech has meanwhile acquired 100% of Lotus UK, bringing the sports-car factory at Hethel, Lotus Engineering and the Chinese-developed lifestyle-car business together under one ‘One Lotus’ structure.
No comeback yet?
There is little evidence of a European comeback yet. Belgium registered only 77 new Lotuses in the first seven months of 2026, down 25% year-on-year. The overall Belgian car market contracted by just 2.4%. July offered a small glimmer of hope, with 19 registrations compared with 7 a year earlier, but the volume remains tiny.
The Netherlands looks even more difficult. Just 20 new Lotuses have been registered so far in 2026, compared with 45 in 2025 and 150 in 2024.
The Eletre illustrates the retreat: registrations collapsed from 136 in 2024 to 28 last year and only six this year. Remarkably, of the 1,463 Lotuses still registered in the Netherlands, 83% run on gasoline, and the old Elise remains by far the most common model.
