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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:

China's Geely buying majority stake in Lotus

Geely, the Hong Kong car company that owns Volvo, is acquiring control of British car company Lotus. Geely is purchasing a 51-percent stake in Lotus from struggling Malaysian car company Proton, and a 49.9 percent stake in Proton itself. Etika Automotive will gain the other 49 percent of Lotus. France's PSA Group and Japan's Suzuki had apparently also been interested in acquiring Proton. Geely says it plans to revive both Proton and Lotus. "The agreement lays the foundation for a wider framework for both Geely Holding, Proton and Lotus to explore joint synergies in areas such as research and development, manufacturing and market presence," Geely said in a news release. Those joint synergies will be highlighted by the lightweight chassis technology Lotus is known for, which could help Geely improve fuel efficiency. Geely CFO Daniel Donghui Li said the company aims to "unleash the full potential of Lotus Cars" by expanding and accelerating new products and technologies. Proton was nationally held but was privatized in 2007 to Malaysian conglomerate DRB-Hicom, which is owned by tycoon Syed Mokhtar Al-Bukhary. It was supposed to be the flagship for Malaysia's economic development.Though it owns two factories, Proton mainly rebadges foreign-made cars and sells them in Malaysia. What it has, what Geely presumably wants, is a distribution network in Southeast Asia to pit Chinese cars against Japanese automotive dominance in the region. Retaining a 50.1-percent stake in Proton is seen as a face-saving move. "Proton will always remain a national car and a source of pride, as Proton will still have a majority hold of 50.1 percent," Malaysian finance official Johari Abdul Ghani said. "Our very own much-loved brand now has a real chance in making a comeback, a huge one I hope." Related Video:

2015 Ram ProMaster City Tradesman First Drive [w/video]

From the perspective of a reviewer, there's a refreshing clarity to be hand when approaching a vehicle like a small commercial van. Where the inherent value equation for most vehicles is composed of both objective facts (price, fuel economy), and subjective opinions (looks, emotional response while driving), the reckoning of something like the new Ram ProMaster City is more straightforward. The light commercial van segment in the US has seen a remodel over the last half-decade, moving from paneled-over minivans to the versatile, economical, European-style boxes on wheels you see with increasing frequency today. Ford, Nissan and Chevrolet are all players here (though Chevy's City Express is essentially a rebadged version of Nissan's NV200), and though Ram's entry could be seen as late to the party, it also matches up very nicely in many of those straightforward areas of measure. Kindly, Ram brought along both the Nissan and the Ford for us to test alongside its new product, so we could get firsthand comparative impressions. The 2015 ProMaster City is roomier, more powerful and more maneuverable than its competition, though it trades those advantages for a higher price and a thirstier engine around town. We headed down to Texas where, between breaks for tacos and Topo Chicos, our goal was to see if Ram had created the new best box van in the US. Based on the already successful Fiat Doblo van from Europe, the baby ProMaster's visual transformation after its continental hop isn't radical. Ram has fitted a crosshair grille, new headlights and taillights, but largely the curvaceous, nose-forward styling remains the same. As we mentioned at the top: style is going to be very low on this list of priorities for a buyer of light commercial vans. Still, we'd rate the City as mid-pack for the options in the US; more attractive than the Nissan/Chevy twins and less so than the crisp Ford Transit Connect. (Though the optional five-spoke wheels of our test vehicle make it seem downright sporty in this group). Open the driver's side door and slide into the almost totally flat front seat, and any notion of "style" goes right out the window. Surfaces are almost exclusively black and gray, with workaday textures and frustratingly easy-to-scratch-plastics. This is a functional space though; trays, cubbies, cupholders and bins are far more numerous than you'd expect from a compact, two-seat cabin.