Lotus CEO Dany Bahar is reportedly looking for a financial partner who can buy Lotus from parent company, Proton.

Proton itself has controlled Lotus since 1996, and was recently sold to Malaysian Conglomerate DRB-Hicom. Bahar’s decision to actively seek partners could be down to the fact that Proton’s new owner may not want to support Lotus, a company that hasn’t made a profit the entire time Proton has owned it.

According to the London Sunday Times, Bahar is not looking for any partner, but one that would be willing to invest approximately £500 million to fund their future models including the new Elise, Elan, Esprit and Eterne cars.

However, according to the report, the loss-making sports car maker is also being stalked by Genii Capital, which already owns the Lotus F1 team. Genii has been said to have been examining the Lotus business for some time and is ‘close to completing due diligence’.

If true, both potential buyers are positioning themselves for a possible Lotus sale within the next few months.

The Lotus F1 team has revealed that it will name its 2012 car as the E20 to celebrate the 20th F1 chassis to be designed at its Enstone base.

The team, previously known as Renault and racing under the Lotus name this year, moved to Enstone back in 1992 and has taken F1 world titles with both Michael Schumacher and Fernando Alonso.

The E20, which will be driven by Kimi Raikkonen and Romain Grosjean, will be launched on the Lotus F1 team website on 5th February before hitting the track in the first pre-season test at Jerez two days later.

“Our naming of the chassis to recognise Enstone’s importance to the team’s evolution highlights our recognition of the contribution of the facility and the personnel who work tirelessly every year to produce the very best car possible,” said team boss Eric Boullier.

“We certainly hope that this is the case with the E20 and we are looking forward to revealing the car to the world and seeing it out on track for the first time.

“There are a number of technical changes from last year and we have an exciting new driver line-up to extract the maximum from the E20 through the twenty grands prix of the 2012 season, including the 500th race for this team through its different incarnations. We hope that the E20 proves to be a performing Enstone design.”

According to a recent Bloomberg report, Malaysian investors say the time is now for government-owned Proton Holdings Bhd. to sell its stake in Lotus Group International Ltd.

Reports of Lotus’ sale to Genii Captial and Shanghai Automotive Industry Corp. have been speculated and denied in recent months, but Proton’s recent profit drop of 76% in the last quarter has prompted investors like Gan Eng Peng, who is head of equities at HwangDBS Investment Management Bhd and manages approximately $3.6 billion in assets, to bolster reports that the Malaysian government may sell its stake in Proton.

As a result, the path of least resistance for Proton is to shed its struggling sports car maker. Gan says, “It will make sense for them to sell it. Proton and Lotus are not a good fit. They are in different market segments, both in terms of geography and product.”

Selling Lotus would allow Proton to refocus on its domestic market by investing in production facilities as pressures from competitors such as Toyota and Perodua increase.

On the other hand, Lotus CEO Dany Bahar, who helped come up with 6 all-new concepts for the 2010 Paris Motor Show, previously said these concepts would form production models that would help Lotus break even by 2014. But he also said, “Without the funding support and the guarantees given by the Proton group, we would not survive, end of story.”

The concepts included a new Lotus Esprit, Lotus Elan, Lotus Elise and a new Lotus Elite. An all-new V8 engine for the Esprit is apparently well into the development stages.

Since Proton purchased Lotus in 1996, the company hasn’t made a profit. Malaysian stockbroking firm OSK Holdings Bhd. estimates that Lotus needs RM2.4 billion, triple its current value, to be profitable. Once profitable, the brand is still only worth about RM1 billion, according to OSK analyst Ahmad Maghfur Usman.

But to break it down even further, Lotus needs to sell around 8,000 vehicles per year to become profitable, up from its current annual sales figure of less than 2,000 units.

Whilst most sensible people prepare to wind down for the festive period, the hard working Lotus Motorsport team are busy celebrating the fruits of their labour over the past 12 months following the first successful engine fire up in the Lotus IndyCar chassis AND the first proper Exige R-GT rally car shakedown all within the space of 24 hours.

The first official Lotus IndyCar engine fire up in new car took place on 22nd December at Dallara’s headquarters in Varano Melegari, Palma under the watchful eye of Group Lotus Director of Motorsport Claudio Berro and technicians from the team. Pleased with the overall results, the team have now prepared the engine and car for shipment to the US where full testing will begin in January.

Heading north to Turin, the Exige R-GT, the Rally version of the new Exige S, took centre stage with a quick track shakedown for the first time in full Rally specification. The car handled exactly as expected and the team were delighted with the results. Testing will continue in the new year ahead of the start of the 2012 FIA World Rally Championship season where the Exige will contend the FIA GT category on asphalt at events in Monte Carlo, Tour de Corse and San Remo.

Claudio Berro said: “The fire up in the car went really well, there were no nasty surprises and I think our partners are going to be very happy with the results. It was only October last year that we announced that we would become an IndyCar engine supplier and just 12 months on, we had an all new Lotus engine and three teams signed up – Bryan Herta Autosport, Dreyer and Reinbold Racing, and HVM Racing. We’ve still got a lot of work to do ahead of the start of the 2012 IZOD IndyCar season but so far I’m very encouraged by what I see.

“And as for the Rally car, when you consider that we’ve only began working on this car in July, I think what we’ve achieved in that time has been incredible. For me the Exige S makes the perfect GT rally car, it has an awesome 3.5-litre, supercharged engine, and we’ve managed to balance the weight perfectly to meet the minimum weight regulations. The shakedown today (23rd December) has only made us even more excited to show off the car in true race form early next year – I think we’re doing the Lotus motorsport pedigree proud.”

We managed to join up with the Shell and their Helix Invasion Tour to Penang, along with 50 other supercars last weekend making it one of the most expensive and diverse marques heading up north along our Malaysian highways of late. Comprising of Lamborghinis, Ferraris, Maseratis, Porsches, Aston Martins, Nissan GTR R35s and Lotuses, the journey began with a rendezvous at the Proton Centre of Excellence, where a quick safety-brief ensued and into our designated cars we went. Escort outriders from Polis Di Raja Malaysia (PDRM) helped usher us to the designated highway where mechanical abuse of the highest degree took place.

Not a rain cloud was in sight as the sun made plenty sure we were kept at optimal working temperature for the trip up north, which was anything but slow and along for the journey was 25 year old Jordan Ng, who hails from the city of Kuala Lumpur, was one of the lucky winners from zerotohundred.com‘s online contest which allowed him a seat in one of the supercars as a passenger: “I was fortunate to have owned a Mitsubishi EVO 7 in the past and now a Nissan R35 GTR. By winning this interesting Shell Helix Contest, I hope it will spur me to achieve my dream of owning a Ferrari F430 in the near future.”

The supercar convoy comprised mainly of the Blue Jackets Society (BJS) where not anyone and everyone who has a supercar is allowed in as a member, but rather after some ‘character scrutineering’ will a final decision be made. BJS has been closely linked to the Make a Wish Foundation, where they eagerly help to put, not just smiles, but a lasting and memorable one on less fortunate kids who are generally faced with terminal illnesses as explained by the main founder Erwin Dato’ Azizi.

In order for us to keep up with the skilfully quick BJS group out on the open highway, Lotus Cars Malaysia were helpful in providing the media with a few Exige and Evora, so having to meet at Proton’s Centre of Excellence, finally made sense.

Midway into the trip, we made a quick stop at the Penang Inshore Fisherman Welfare Association (PIFWA) at Nibong Tebal, as part of Shell’s Eco-responsibility drive towards the environment, by helping to replant the mangrove forest there, before heading for lunch at Juru’s Autocity and finally pushing onwards to Batu Ferringhi, Penang; where a hot shower and dinner on the beach awaited us at The Golden Sands Resort.

The International Automobile Federation (FIA) has confirmed that three Formula One teams – Team Lotus, Renault and Virgin Racing – will be changing their names come the 2012 season.

From 2012 onwards, Team Lotus will soon be known as Caterham, while Virgin Racing will drop the name of Richard Branson’s company from its official moniker and to be renamed Morussia.

Russian carmaker Morussia Motors purchased a significant stake in Virgin in November 2010, and have had their logo present on the car throughout the 2011 season.

Renault will also undergo changes ahead of next year’s campaign, changing their chassis name to Lotus.

The decision to approve the name changes means that confusion over the Lotus name in F1 will be brought to an end, following a long-running dispute between Team Lotus and the road car company Group Lotus.

The battle, as you may recall, involves two outfits. One based in Malaysia which licensed the name from Lotus’ parent company, Proton, before subsequently “acquiring” the name from a third party that lay claim to it.

The issue was further complicated when Lotus itself teamed with the Renault F1 team (which also happens to supply engines to the other Lotus team), resulting in two squads called Lotus-Renault.

In a bid to clean up the matter after lengthy court proceedings, the Enstone-based Renault F1 team will now be the only outfit running the Lotus name.

Team Lotus will make full use of the Caterham brand, less than one year after the outfit’s owner Tony Fernandes bought the sportscar manufacturer.

Group Lotus awarded multi million Regional Growth Fund

The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) has formally confirmed that Group Lotus’ bid for funds from the second round of the Regional Growth Fund (RGF) has been successful.

One of the main purposes of the Regional Growth Fund is to support growth within the UK manufacturing sector. Lotus recognised that the Government was seeking applications which would enable private sector organisations to invest in projects that would create jobs and secure long-term growth. Lotus’ growth plans are completely aligned with the Fund’s objectives and will go someway towards rebalancing employment between the public and private sector in the South Norfolk region.

The grant will be put to good use supporting the industrial research element of the production of Lotus’ future product range. This significant development will go towards ensuring that the manufacturing of future Lotus products remains in the UK for the foreseeable future and in the process create a considerable number of new jobs over the next five to six years.

Group Lotus Chief Executive Officer, Dany Bahar.

Commenting on the news, Group Lotus Chief Executive Officer, Dany Bahar said: “This is great news for all those concerned about Group Lotus moving production overseas, to say that we’re pleased with the result would be an understatement. We are an authentic British automotive manufacturer with an incredible heritage and an exciting future ahead, this funding will play a role in assisting with the realisation of our business plan to produce a new range of sports cars with best in class performance and emissions.

“We would like to thank everyone for their support during the bid process. The local authorities, MPs and the local enterprise partnership have all played a role in helping us secure this funding – we’re very grateful, it’s nice to know people feel strongly enough to act on our behalf.”

Business Secretary Vince Cable said: “We need to be doing all we can to enable businesses and organisations to create much needed jobs and inject private investment into the economy.

“We have announced today that a further 162 projects will benefit from the fund, and expect to deliver a huge number of jobs across their businesses and in the supply chain.

“This is a very significant boost to local communities, and the Regional Growth Fund will help businesses like Lotus to drive local growth.”

In an effort to promote their racing pedigree, Lotus has introduced yet another special edition version of the Evora S dubbed the Lotus Evora S GP Edition which will be launched in a limited of only three units.

Drawing inspiration from the Lotus-Renault Formula One race car, the Evora has a black exterior with red rear view mirrors, 19/20 inch diamond-cut wheels and gold striping.

Additionally, the car is equipped with the premium package, the technology package and a rear view camera.

Like the standard model, power is provided by a supercharged 3.5L V6 engine with 346bhp and 400Nm of torque. This should enable it to accelerate from 0-100 km/h in 4.8 seconds and hit a top speed of 277 km/h.

Recently, rumours have been circulating that Genii Capital is looking to buy a portion of Group Lotus.

Owner of Group Lotus, Proton, has denied the recent rumoured sale in a stock exchange filling highlighting that the relationship between Proton with Group Lotus is “as good as it has ever been.”

Proton stated that the alleged moves between Group Lotus and Genii Capital are “untrue” and that the news is “highly speculative in nature.”

“Through this positive synergy, our priority now is to ensure that the Lotus Business Turnaround Plan is executed according to schedule and that both parties are committed to its success.” Proton said in a statement.

“Proton and Lotus have reached a juncture whereby the market is eagerly waiting for Lotus’ new products and all our energy and efforts have to be channelled towards achieving this critical goal,” Proton added.

“”Furthermore, the scope of Lotus’ involvement in F1 as title sponsor to Lotus-Renault GP is to create dynamic marketing and branding synergies.” the statement concludes.

Following its official debut at the 2011 Frankfurt Motor Show a few weeks ago, Lotus released a trailer for its new 2012 Exige S titled “Duel”.

The video features a fight between a boxer versus the new Exige and unsurprisingly, the Exige quite literally ends up running circles around the boxer.

The 2012 Lotus Exige S is powered by a 3.5L supercharged V6 engine that develops 345bhp and 400Nm of torque. In terms of performance, the official figures say that the latest generation Lotus Exige S can complete 0 to 100 km/h sprint in just 3.8 seconds and has a top speed of 274 km/h.

Lotus said that its facelifted version of the Exige S will have a new redesigned aggressive front fascia, and what better way to reveal this in the promo than placing it against a menacing looking boxer, which may have one out of two roles; symbolizing the Porsche Boxter or simply putting an accent on the aggressive front fascia of the Exige S.

Nonetheless, do take a look at the new Lotus Exige S promo video below.