Lotus Chief Jean-Marc Gales Leaves Company “For Personal Reasons”

There’s change afoot at Lotus as its chief executive has stepped down.

Jean-Marc Gales is leaving the British sportscar manufacturer and engineering consultancy with immediate effect, citing only “personal reasons” and that it was “time to move on.”

Gales joined Lotus in 2014 from the PSA Group, where he served as a senior executive. Though he oversaw the launch of numerous new versions of its existing Elise, Exige, and Evora models, the company he has steered has lacked the resources to launch anything complete new in the past decade.

That all looks poised to change now that Geely is in control. The Chinese giant – which also owns Volvo, Polestar, Lynk&Co, the London Electric Vehicle Company, and a sizable chunk of Daimler – acquired controlling interest in Lotus a little over a year ago, and is hoped to rescue the storied marque from its budgetary restrictions.

Geely is replacing Gales with Quingfeng Feng – vice president and chief technical officer of Geely Auto Group. With one of its own in control, Geely will hopefully foot the bill to replace Lotus’ aging sportscar lineup, and potentially launch the lightweight crossover that Gales has been championing.

Gales is moving on to British classic-car dealer and restorer JD Classics. He says he sees “huge potential for global expansion” in JD Classics.