Lotus Suspends Dany Bahar
Group Lotus CEO Dany Bahar has been “suspended” from his position, a decision undertaken by parent company DRB Hicom.
No real details as to the reasoning behind this decision have been released, but Bahar’s “ambitious” aim of six new products by 2015 must play a significant part.
Whilst some car magazines were happy to trumpet the new models as a real, genuine proposition, ESM was cynical. Given that Lotus is a relatively small specialist manufacturer, producing and developing so many new models would always be a mammoth task. To be honest, not even huge car-makers would take on such a project lightly.
Along with this, Bahar has overseen the expensive (£20) Lotus lifestyle magazine, in addition to the collaboration with rapper Swizz Beatz. Whilst I can see the aim of taking Lotus upmarket – the high-end players will always have money – this is not the right brand.
Colin Chapman founded Lotus to make lightweight and technically advanced performance cars. Churning out a product range to rival Porsche head-on moves far away from that principle. Chapman did new and exciting; Bahar seemed obsessed with generic and profitable. I’m sure Colin would be turning in his grave.
The final straw must surely have come with that horrendous press release. Bahar looked like a mad man and made Lotus a laughing stock. That misjudged media message must be reason enough to oust him.
ESM hopes Lotus can survive and be sustainable; it is too big a name to lose. But it should look at innovative new products, and stick to its core values.
I Just Couldn’t Resist. Sorry.
After the seriousness of yesterday’s up! review, the desire to make a play on words with the new VW was too great.
Volkswagen are clearly already aware of this, just look at the model names they’re already using:
Take up! – Base specification,
Move up! – Next model up with slightly more kit,
High up! – Top of the line, clearly,
e-up! – Electric concept car version (also great for those from Yorkshire).
There’s also two special edition versions which, for reasons I can’t possibly imagine, don’t use the same naming convention:
up! Black,
up! White.
Anyway, to help VW out, here are my own new model suggestions:
up! Hill, Down Dale – Perfect for a 4×4 off-road version.
Open up! – Convertible model.
Lighten up! – A BMW CSL stripped out, lightweight edition.
Power up! – Forget a GT or GTI performance edition, this is the name to call your hot baby-hatch.
What do you think? Any other suggestions, hit the comment button below!
