Lotus Switching to Volvo Engines

In case you aren’t aware, Lotus hasn’t used an engine of its own design for decades. Instead of starting that up again, the Geely-owned British automaker will leverage the engines from sister brand Volvo. My, what a time to be alive.

It’s actually only partly accurate to say Lotus will be using Volvo engines. The plan really calls for Volvo Cars and Geely to merge their internal combustion engine operations into one unit, then Lotus will draw off those combined resources. That engine venture would be a standalone company apart from Volvo, but it would be accurate to say Volvo and Lotus models could be using the same engines before long.

Lotus has been sourcing its engines from Toyota, like the 3.5-liter V-6 in the Evora which is used in several Toyota models such as the Camry and Highlander. Of course, it has a nice supercharger bolted up, which helps push power well past what it normally produces.

Eventually Lotus will use electric powertrains that are being developed by Volvo, not the standalone engine company. Nothing is staying the same these days, for better or worse. It remains to be seen how this will affect future Lotus products, but Toyota will no longer be making some extra side cash off the British automaker. Something tells me Toyota will land on its feet.