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On February 23rd, Lutes Technology Co., Ltd. ("Lotus Tech") completed the merger with L Catterton Asia Acquisition Corp, a special purpose M & A company, and listed on NASDAQ in the United States under the stock symbol "LOT". On the face of the market, Lutes opened well above its pre-SPAC closing price on the first day of trading, and then its shares fluctuated sharply, closing at $13.80 on Friday, up 2.15%, giving a total market capitalization of $9.294 billion.

Founded in 1948, Lutes has been on a par with top supercar brands such as Ferrari and Porsche. In 1957, the Lutos Eleven won the championship of 750cc performance index in Le Mans endurance race. In 1963, Lutes won the first F1 team championship, and Lutes continued to shine in F1. In 1978, Lutes won the seventh F1 team championship. In 1982, Colin Chapman, founder of Lutes, died.

After entering the 1980s, Lutes could not be too minority to make a profit on a large scale, and finally could not escape the fate of being changed hands many times. It was successively acquired by Toyota, General Motors, Italian capitalists and Proton Group. In June 2017, Geely signed a final agreement with Malaysia's DRB-HICOM Group: Zhejiang Geely Automobile holding Group acquired 49.9% of Proton Motor, a subsidiary of DRB-HICOM Group, and 51% of luxury sports car brand Lotus.

The fact that Lutes became a brand owned by Geely Holdings did not seem to make much of a stir and was even regarded as a "giveaway" for Geely Holdings to acquire Proton cars. Although Lutersgui is a top supercar brand, no new car has been released since 2008, and Geely Holdings has been at a loss for a long time after buying Lutes, not knowing how to revive Lutes. Lutes CEO Feng Qingfeng said, "if Lutes goes to make a series of traditional things such as high-engine sports cars, the chances for Lutes are slim. So since Lutes was acquired in 2017, we are also confused to find the right way for Lutes. At this point of time, electrification, intelligence and self-driving are coming, and I think this is an opportunity for Lutes."

In the second year of Geely, Lutes put forward the "Vision80 Ten-year Brand Revival Plan", that is, to complete the comprehensive transformation of the brand to electric and intelligent on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the Lutes brand in 2028.

In 2019, Lutes released its first pure electric supercar Evija, which sells for as much as 21.88 million yuan and is limited to 130 units worldwide. In November 2021, the Emira, the last fuel car of the Lutes brand, went on sale with an official guiding price of 858000 yuan. In October 2022, Lutes launched its first pure electric supercar, SUV Lutes ELETRE, and the new version of ELETRE currently sells for 728000 yuan to 1.028 million yuan. In January this year, the pure electric supercar EMEYA Fanhua also officially went on sale, with a price ranging from 668000 yuan to 1.18 million yuan. According to the plan, Lutes will launch two more pure electric models in the next two years.

Unlike Porsche and Ferrari, Lutes is still losing money. According to the prospectus, the net losses of Lutes Technology in 2021, 2022 and the first half of 2023 were $111 million, $725 million and $353 million, respectively, with a cumulative loss of $1.188 billion, or about 8.542 billion yuan. As of June 30, 2023, Lutes Technology's total assets were $1.595 billion, of which cash and restricted cash were $728 million and total liabilities were $2.005 billion. Under this cash situation, the importance of listing is highlighted.

Lutes, Li Shufu's eighth listed company, is also the third company listed in the United States. The role of Lutes to Geely, perhaps Geely does not expect Lutes to bring objective sales and revenue, as long as Lutes is a flow window, always active in the vision of consumers, because "ultra-luxury" originally determines the minority of Lutes, is destined to be difficult to dominate the development of the mainstream market. For Geely, although Lutes does not have a strong sense of existence compared with Porsche, Lamborghini and other supercar brands, Lutes was once one of the three major luxury supercar brands in the world, and Lutes is also one of the few top supercar brands under Geely, which is of great significance to its development.

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