Lotus today announced that Dave Marler has been appointed Chief Engineer, Vehicle Test and Development for the companies cars.

Marler will certainly have some large shoes to fill – replacing Matthew Becker who is leaving Lotus after 26 years at the company and who together with his father Roger Becker, who retired in 2010 after 44 years at the company, helped perfect the ride and handling of countless Lotus models.

Discussion: SELOC Chat – Dave Marler appointed to Chief Engineer

Group Lotus plc has announced the appointment of Dave Marler as Chief Engineer, Vehicle Test and Development for Lotus Cars

Dave, who has been with Lotus for 17 years, previously held the role of Chief Engineer, Development and CAE (Computer – Aided Engineering) for Lotus Engineering. He brings to his new role a depth of knowledge and experience in vehicle development, testing, durability and quality, gained on a number of high profile and confidential projects within Lotus Engineering and Lotus Cars. As an engineer, Dave has worked on all Lotus cars since the Lotus Elise S2 in 2001.

Commenting on the appointment, Jean-Marc Gales, Chief Executive Officer of Group Lotus plc said, “Dave has a well earned reputation within Lotus for his passionate and disciplined approach to engineering development, having been closely involved with some of Lotus Engineering’s most demanding third party clients on many challenging projects. His experience means that he is perfectly placed to lead the Lotus Cars Vehicle Engineering Test and Development Team in ensuring that the process of objective development of Lotus cars is to time, to budget and to specification – and at the same time, making certain that the purity of the Lotus driving experience is made even better.”

Gavan Kershaw, Technical Manager for Lotus Motorsport and who has been at Lotus for 26 years, assumes the additional responsibilities for dynamic attributes and evaluation for Lotus cars. Gavan has a very strong ‘track record’ in developing such icons as the Lotus Exige in 2000, the Lotus Elise S2 in 2001, the Lotus Exige S2 in 2004 and all of Lotus Motorsport’s cars since 1999, including the now legendary Lotus 2-Eleven.

Group Lotus plc also confirms that the current Chief Engineer of Vehicle Test and Development, Matthew Becker will be leaving the business.

Jean-Marc Gales, continues “I would like to thank Matthew for his contribution to Lotus over the last 26 years and wish him well for the future.

“We are committed to building a strong sustainable future for this business and we are now well advanced in reshaping the organisation. 2015 is going to be a particularly important year for us and it is key that we create the right organisational structure to seize the opportunities that the year will bring.”

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