Lotus pins its hopes on rising sales and a new model to shift up a gear

It is turning into an auspicious year for Lotus.

The Norfolk sports car maker has released its sales figures for the year to the end of March 2015, and the number is strangely appropriate: 2,015.

More importantly, it is a 55 per cent increase on the year before and the highest number of sales of the company's distinctive coupes and roadsters - whose names all begin with "E" - since the financial crisis.

A new model, the Evora 400 - which follows the Elise and Exige and was launched at last month's Geneva motor show - is expected to further propel sales.

It comes as welcome relief for Lotus, in the midst of a new turnround plan as it seeks to bring its carmaking business to break-even for the first time in its 67-year history.

"Interest in the brand is very high," says Jean-Marc Gales, who took over as Lotus group chief executive in May last year. "People see there is a strategy to bring the brand back to where it has been - and maybe [take it] even further."

The Malaysian-owned company, which also has an engineering consulting arm and a motorsport division, shed about a fifth of its workforce in September, losing 240 staff.

As part of the latest five-year plan, the car division is hiring engineers again, cultivating a rapid increase in its dealer network and launching new products - including, perhaps, an off-roader.

Mr Gales, pictured below, says he will decide within the next 12 months whether Lotus will join the hordes of carmakers rushing to produce sport utility vehicles. If it does so, sales could reach "10,000 or 20,000", he said.

"The truth is we're thinking about it all the time," he said. "I could imagine an SUV sitting extremely well with the Lotus brand."

But it is not just cars that Mr Gales has his eye on.

He has no intention of closing the Lotus Originals clothing store on Regent Street in London, which was opened in 2012.

Although he will not sell cars from the Piccadilly flagship, he aims to make the showroom into a "brand centre" for the company.

"We'll keep it, because the location is fantastic," says Mr Gales. "But it needs to contribute in the medium and long-term to selling more sports cars."

The 4,800 sq ft store was the brainchild of Dany Bahar, the Istanbul-born former Ferrari executive who led Lotus from 2009 to 2012 and launched the clothing line alongside five new models at the Paris Motor Show in 2010 - part of a bold attempt to rival Mr Bahar's former employer.

That period has come to symbolise a lot of what was wrong with Lotus's car division.

Seasoned Lotus watchers will feel they have been here before. "Lotus has had many different owners and turnround plans over the years but one thing has remained pretty constant: Lotus is a perennially lossmaking car firm," says David Bailey, motor industry expert at Aston Business School.

Under the five-year plan agreed with the Malaysian shareholder DRB-Hicom, which controls Lotus through its Proton carmaking subsidiary, Lotus is aiming for a positive operating cash flow this financial year, and to record an operating profit in 2016-17.

Mr Gales says he has the backing of shareholders.

But there are no signs the group has put in any more money beyond £100m pledged in 2013. Neither Proton nor DRB-Hicom could be reached for comment.

Lotus suffers from a similar complex to Aston Martin, lacking a big-pocketed industry owner to provide research and development funding and cross-share technology. By contrast, Lotus's former stable mate, Bugatti, is now owned by Volkswagen, which spent €11.5bn on R&D last year.

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"It's going to come down to this: can you develop the R&D budget when you're up against Porsche," says one analyst, who declines to be named. "It's going to be tough for them."

But it is not just Porsche that Lotus is up against. Sports car buyers now have a lot to choose from.

Lotus, whose average transaction price is about £50,000 across its three models, is not the only cherished brand being revived. Alfa Romeo, owned by Fiat Chrysler Automobiles, is taking a big swing at the US market. Maserati, another FCA brand, is meanwhile courting buyers as a mass-premium operator and Jaguar is revving up its sports car status with the F-Type.

But Mr Gales says: "Our cars have a positioning that is different from Alfa and Aston. Lotus is, together with McLaren, a quintessential British brand that has for years made sports cars that have a certain pedigree, and used cleverness to beat other cars on the track. That sets us apart."

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