Lotus, owned by Proton parent company DRB-HICOM, said it would use a GBP10m government grant to create around 300 jobs.
The Regional Growth Fund (RGF) will be used for new model research and development and staff training.
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Lotus said it expected to create 313 full time production related jobs but did not specify a timeframe other than “coming years”.
DRB-HICOM, which is expanding contract assembly of Volkswagens in Malaysia, has already given Lotus GBP100m to improve engineering, productivity, efficiency and quality. Last July, Lotus started hiring people for more than 130 new jobs.
The Regional Growth Fund (RGF) was set up to allocate GBP3.2bn to English businesses from 2011 to 2017. It aids projects which use private sector funds to create economic growth and sustainable employment.
Lotus COO Aslam Farikullah said: “This grant is part of a wider strategy created to ensure we thrive and grow. We are responding to increased global demand for our cars and engineering consultancy services and this grant will help to position [us] at the forefront of global automotive innovation.
“We have very exciting plans for our sports cars and it’s a very positive move for us that we’re in a position to create new jobs and to significantly contribute to Britain’s automotive industry.”
The UK car industry – which exports the majority of vehicles built – employs around 130,000 people and contributes GBP11bn a year to the economy.
The government claims its industrial strategy “is working and giving business the confidence to invest, creating more high skilled, long term jobs in the UK”, according to business secretary [minister] Vince Cable.
“I am pleased to announce that our flagship economic plan to create jobs outside of London – the regional growth fund – is awarding Lotus a GBP10m grant which will help them develop their next generation of cars and create over 300 new jobs in East Anglia,” he said.
