Rumor Mill: GM to buy Lotus?

A rumor has been going around that GM is interested in buying Proton, which is the Malaysian car company that currently owns Lotus.

A source told the Business Times that GM wants to use Malaysia as a lower-cost centre to develop car parts for its plants worldwide. Proton badly needs to forge an alliance with a global car maker to reverse sliding sales and safeguard its future, industry analysts say. For the major car makers, Proton offers an under-utilised, state-of-the-art production platform in Asia.

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Not sure what it would mean for Tesla Motors if GM ended up owning their partner. (Incidentally, GM has owned Lotus before, during which time they developed the LT5 DOHC V8 engine for the Corvette ZR-1.) It would not seem that GM are interested in Lotus as such, they just want Proton's factories. So even if they bought Proton they might end up selling Lotus or spinning it off.

Update: VW to buy Lotus?

The latest report I got says GM's bid was a failure, and instead Proton will go to. . . Volkswagen! URL link follows. . .

http://www.autoblog.com/2007/01/27/enter-the-rumormill-vw-won-bid-to-control-proton

I don't think we need to worry about Volkswagen having any grudge against electric cars, or trying to undermine the Lotus-Tesla relationship.

Incidentally. . . Before the Tesla Roadster was ever revealed to the public, the coolest "green sports car" that I ever saw was the VW Ecoracer, which was similar in size and configuration to the Lotus Elise but was supposed to run on biodiesel fuel. Unfortunately it was only a concept/show car, not something they would put into production.