Lotus has announced the appointment of Mark Stringer as the new commercial director of Lotus Engineering, the consultancy division of the business.

He leads the strategic planning and delivery of projects for a wide range of OEM and supplier clients across the automotive industry and beyond. This includes the ongoing collaboration between Lotus and Alpine, the performance car division of Groupe Renault that is spearheading next-generation electric sports cars for both brands.

Mr Stringer said: “I am delighted to be leading Lotus Engineering at this pivotal point in the transformation of the business, and also at such a fascinating time for the industry, as technology and innovation drives new mobility and propulsion solutions across all sectors.”

He has more than 20 years of front-line leadership experience across commercial, corporate, strategic, technical and operational engineering environments and is currently in his second term with Lotus, having rejoined the business from Aston Martin in 2018.

Most recently he has served as director of corporate planning, and prior to that was director of programme management. Mr Stringer was previously employed at Lotus from 2002-2005 as a senior project engineer within the consultancy.

The growth and commercial success of Lotus Engineering, which was officially established as a separate business division in 1980, is a key pillar of Vision80, the strategic plan which is guiding the transformation of Lotus as it moves towards its 80th anniversary in 2028.

Mr Stringer continued: “As the automotive industry shifts its focus to the opportunities and challenges of an all-electric future, Lotus Engineering is perfectly placed to capitalise on more than four decades of experience and success. Using our three new full EV platforms, plus the Emira and legacy architectures, we can enable businesses to realise their product aspirations through an accelerated timescale and with reduced investment.

“From design and concept engineering to full-scale industrialisation, attribute development and even manufacturing, our broad range of services mean we can support customers through the entire product development process and beyond.”

He added: “We are also driving innovation in other fields where our design, engineering and manufacturing expertise can be applied and add value. A great example is in our high-profile collaboration on an innovative new track bike that led British Cycling to seven medals at last summer’s Tokyo Olympics.”

Lotus Engineering is today headquartered at the Lotus Advanced Technology Centre (LATC), part of the Wellesbourne Campus of the University of Warwick. From this base it supports customers by accessing Lotus’ hugely capable global team and ‘state of the art’ facilities across the UK, Europe and China.

Consultancy work has always been part of the Lotus business and started when company founder Colin Chapman was hired to develop the 1956 F1 Championship-winning Vanwall race car. More recently it was at the forefront of work on commercial EVs, developing and manufacturing the 2008 Tesla Roadster, the world’s first production electric sports car.