Business Weekly - Cambridge, UK

Driving a new tomorrow: President-elect, Senator Barack Obama, has promised to pump billions into a greentech revolution in the US. Pic courtesy of Matthew Ginger

Other East of England CleanTech companies could also cash in on the president-elect’s strategy to revive the general US economy through renewable energy and environmental technologies.

Lotus’s carmaking and engineering consultancy arms are leading the world in the development of greener, leaner vehicles and chief executive, Mike Kimberley, says the company is targeting the US market in line with the new direction signalled by the incoming president.

Kimberley revealed: “We are in total synch with the president-elect’s direction on environmentally friendly cars and green technologies. 

“We are very proud to be manufacturing the Tesla – the world’s first all-electric sports car at Lotus and I can also confirm that our friends at Chrysler have based the Dodge electric vehicle on our Europa platform. This is being sold worldwide apart from the US. 

“Lotus Engineering is really on a roll in respect of vehicles running on biofuels, hybrid-electric vehicles and electric vehicles. At the moment we have six electric and four hybrid projects underway for major clients globally.

“The company has a rich heritage in automotive technology. Lotus cars such as the Elise and Exige – and now the new Evora – are all based on Colin Chapman’s DNA philosophies of lightweight, high efficiency and high primary safety products. 

“We are finding that this enables us to achieve significantly increased sales due to the exceptionally good fuel economy, emissions and performance all in one package.”

“Hence the customer can maintain extreme enjoyment from driving a Lotus with – to quote from the  Financial Times – guilt free performance.”
The East of England’s burgeoning renewable energy & environmental technologies cluster is also attracting attention at the White House.

Barack Obama has pledged $150 bn to slash America’s carbon footprint by adopting cleantech energy and environmental solutions.

This region has a whole phalanx of world-leading exponents in the field and East of England International, the inward investment powerhouse which also delivers UK Trade & Industry services, is already promoting these front-runners to UK trade consuls across the US.

East of England International is shortly to mail UK consulates around the world flagging up the region’s CleanTech expertise. EEI recently hosted Rebecca Lewis, vice-consul, UK Trade & Investment in New York with responsibility for the CleanTech sector.

She and EEI business development manager Jacky Holtby work together on inward investment into the region. They used Lewis’ visit to highlight some of the key research and companies in the East of England that Lewis could promote on the East Coast of the US.