Lotus, the British sports car and engineering concern 80 per cent owned by Proton of Malaysia, is to sack 275 more workers, the Financial Times said.
The FT said the cuts, concentrated almost wholly in car assembly, will bring to more than 500 total job losses at Lotus since last spring and will leave the world-wide work force at about 1,700.
Go deeper with GlobalData
Discover B2B Marketing That Performs
Combine business intelligence and editorial excellence to reach engaged professionals across 36 leading media platforms.
The newspaper said that Lotus cut 270 jobs from its engineering consultancy business early last year after a £42.6 million ($US60.3 million) pre-tax loss last year affected by production disruptions and restructuring costs.
A Lotus spokesman told the FT that the latest cuts would bring car making capacity into line with worsening economic conditions and expected lower demand for sports cars world-wide.
Efficiency improvements following a £14m investment in new manufacturing facilities had also contributed to the need to shed labour, the company told the FT.
Though it could build 10,000 cars a year Lotus makes only 5,000 Vauxhall/Opel VX220 and Lotus Elise and Esprit sports cars a year and even that has fallen recently by 500 cars, the FT added.
