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Lotus CEO Jean-Marc Gales abruptly quits

Jean-Marc Gales is out as CEO at sports car maker Lotus after nearly four years and a track record of turning the company from years of financial losses to a small profit. He'll be replaced by Feng Qingfeng, vice president and chief technical officer of China's Geely Auto Group, who joined the company's board after Geely acquired a majority ownership stake a year ago. Gales will continue as chief strategic advisor to Lotus Chairman Daniel Donghui Li. "Jean-Marc has stabilized and turned Lotus to profitability for the first time in the iconic brand's history, with new industry-leading products and unique business models since joining the company in 2014," Daniel, who is also Lotus' chief financial officer, said in a statement. "Lotus is poised for the next phase of growth under Feng Qingfeng's leadership, where its expertise in lightweight materials and sports car engineering will form part of the wider expansion of Geely's automotive portfolio." Gales told Autocar he was leaving for "personal reasons" and said it was "time to move on." He will head up JD Classics, a British dealer and restorer of classic cars. Gales praised his successor, saying Feng could "unlock the synergies" between Geely stablemates Lotus, Volvo, Polestar and Chinese brand Lynk & Co. Lotus under Gales had been working on updating its aging portfolio of cars — the Elise, the Exige and the Evora — with plans to first update the Elise by 2020. Earlier this year came word that Gales had green-lighted two new sports cars, to be announced later this year and produced in 2020, and an SUV about the size of the Porsche Macan and possibly based on Volvo's SPA platform, which underpins the XC60 and XC90. Lotus under Gales saw sales increase 10 percent in 2017 to about 1,600 sports cars. Related Video:

The UK votes for Brexit and it will impact automakers

It's the first morning after the United Kingdom voted for what's become known as Brexit – that is, to leave the European Union and its tariff-free internal market. Now begins a two-year process in which the UK will have to negotiate with the rest of the EU trading bloc, which is its largest export market, about many things. One of them may be tariffs, and that could severely impact any automaker that builds cars in the UK. This doesn't just mean companies that you think of as British, like Mini and Jaguar. Both of those automakers are owned by foreign companies, incidentally. Mini and Rolls-Royce are owned by BMW, Jaguar and Land Rover by Tata Motors of India, and Bentley by the VW Group. Many other automakers produce cars in the UK for sale within that country and also export to the EU. Tariffs could damage the profits of each of these companies, and perhaps cause them to shift manufacturing out of the UK, significantly damaging the country's resurgent manufacturing industry. Autonews Europe dug up some interesting numbers on that last point. Nissan, the country's second-largest auto producer, builds 475k or so cars in the UK but the vast majority are sent abroad. Toyota built 190k cars last year in Britain, of which 75 percent went to the EU and just 10 percent were sold in the country. Investors are skittish at the news. The value of the pound sterling has plummeted by 8 percent as of this writing, at one point yesterday reaching levels not seen since 1985. Shares at Tata Motors, which counts Jaguar and Land Rover as bright jewels in its portfolio, were off by nearly 12 percent according to Autonews Europe. So what happens next? No one's terribly sure, although the feeling seems to be that the jilted EU will impost tariffs of up to 10 percent on UK exports. It's likely that the UK will reciprocate, and thus it'll be more expensive to buy a European-made car in the UK. Both situations will likely negatively affect the country, as both production of new cars and sales to UK consumers will both fall. Evercore Automotive Research figures the combined damage will be roughly $9b in lost profits to automakers, and an as-of-yet unquantified impact on auto production jobs. Perhaps the EU's leaders in Brussels will be in a better mood in two years, and the process won't devolve into a trade war. In the immediate wake of the Brexit vote, though, the mood is grim, the EU leadership is angry, and investors are spooked.

The Lotus 3-Eleven 430 is the fastest street-legal Lotus built

You're looking at the fastest street-legal Lotus ever built. Weighing in at 2,028 pounds, the new Lotus 3-Eleven 430 can hit 60 mph in just 3.1 seconds and continue all the way to 180 mph. It's a fitting tribute for 40 years of Lotus cars. As expected, the "430" in its name refers to its power output. There's no four-banger screamer in the 3-Eleven 430: The supercharged, Toyota-sourced 3.5-liter, 24-valve V6 produces 430 hp and 324.5 lb-ft. of torque. There's a lightweight carbon-composite body on an extruded-bonded aluminum chassis, and the carbon side panels are partially exposed for that cool carbon look. You also get variable, six-position traction control, with five levels ranging from 1 percent slip to 12 percent slip to off. Lateral acceleration while cornering is a respectable 1.5 g. At the Hethel test track, the new 3-Eleven 430 has reportedly beaten previous Lotus efforts. With a lap time of 1:24, it's 0.8 seconds quicker than an Exige Cup 430, and it also completely obliterates the previous, 2015 3-Eleven by shaving off 2 whole seconds. Only 20 units will be built, so few people will get to experience the 430 at maximum attack. Lotus has priced the 3-Eleven 430 at GBP102,000 on the road in the UK, which corresponds to $142,525. Related Video: Featured Gallery Lotus 3-Eleven 430 Lotus Convertible Performance lotus 3-eleven