Lotus’s announcement that it will cut 550 jobs in the U.K. — nearly 40 percent of its domestic workforce — is more than just a corporate restructuring. It is a microcosm of the pressures reshaping the global auto industry, where geopolitics, technology, and economics are pulling in different directions.

The Geely-owned brand is being crushed by forces outside its control. The U.S. has raised tariffs on imported vehicles from 2.5 percent to 15 percent, effectively locking Lotus’s China-built electric SUV, the Eletre, out of its most important export market. This single policy shift underscores how fragile globalisation has become: when supply chains span continents, a tariff wall can quickly become an existential threat.

At the same time, demand for luxury EVs is cooling, exposing a gap between the speed of industrial transformation and consumer readiness. Lotus, once celebrated for its engineering purity, has been forced to abandon its pledge to go fully electric, pivoting instead toward plug-in hybrids to buy time.

The numbers are stark: sales down 42 percent in Q1, debt climbing past $3 billion, and job cuts piling on top of those already announced in April. Despite assurances that its Hethel plant will remain the brand’s spiritual and engineering home, the company’s survival strategy increasingly depends on diversifying production and securing new partners.

Lotus’s plight illustrates a larger truth. Europe’s auto industry is caught in the crossfire of protectionist trade policies, slowing EV adoption, and the immense costs of technological transition.

Without more coherent global cooperation on trade and climate policy, companies like Lotus will remain vulnerable — forced into crisis mode by the shifting winds of politics and markets alike.