Lotus and Spyker agree to share

Spyker operates a GT race team and designs, engineers, manufactures, markets and distributes high-end sports cars and aims to do so in the near future for super sports utility vehicles. The companies reached agreement today (13 May) on the outline of their intended cooperation, which will include a parts and platform commonality agreement, a parts and accessories supply agreement by which Lotus would provide certain parts for Spyker's new C8 Aileron super sportscar (pictured), and a concept design and engineering agreement relating to all of Spyker's future models. Victor Muller, CEO of Spyker Cars said: "Our company has had a very fruitful cooperation with Lotus, developed over the past four years, relating to engineering services in respect of certain components of our cars, as well as in respect of worldwide certification. Spyker and Lotus have now come to the conclusion that they need to intensify their cooperation to the point that we intend to share parts and platforms, as well as an agreement on the supply of parts. Moreover, Lotus Engineering has become Spyker's preferred subcontractor in respect of a number of engineering projects relating to the Spyker C8 Aileron and the Spyker D8 Peking-to-Paris.” At Lotus, whose ultimate owner is the Malaysian automotive company Proton, CEO Mike Kimberley added: "Lotus is very pleased to be identified as Spyker's preferred engineering supplier for these unique ‘high Brand Image’ ground breaking cars. We look forward to working with Spyker to expand our global business opportunities, projects and interests for our mutually synergistic products and technologies. Lotus Engineering has a great heritage and solid track record in developing innovative solutions for clients and we look forward to using Lotus' advanced light weight vehicle know-how and vehicle dynamics technology to enable Spyker to establish itself as a dynamic premium automotive player."