Lotus Cars

Last updated

Lotus Group
Company type Public
Nasdaq:  LOT
Industry Automotive
Founded1948;76 years ago (1948)
Founder Colin Chapman
Headquarters
Hethel, Norfolk
,
England, United Kingdom
Area served
Worldwide
Key people
  • Qingfeng Feng (CEO)
  • Alexious Lee (CFO)
  • Mike Johnstone (CCO)
Products Automobiles
Production output
Increase2.svg 6,970 units [1] (2023)
RevenueIncrease2.svg $679 million [1]  (2023)
Number of employees
1,385 (2021) [2]
Parent Geely Holding (51%)
Etika Automotive (49%)
Website lotuscars.com

Lotus Group (also known as Lotus Cars, and trading as Lotus NYO in China [3] ) is a British multinational automotive manufacturer of luxury sports cars and electric vehicles.

Contents

Lotus Group is composed of three primary entities. Lotus Cars, a high-performance sports car company, is based in Hethel, Norfolk. Lotus Tech, an all-electric lifestyle vehicle company, headquartered in Wuhan, China, and operates regional facilities in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Germany. [4] Additionally, Lotus Engineering, an engineering consultancy firm, is headquartered at the Lotus Advanced Technology Centre (LATC) located at the University of Warwick's Wellesbourne Campus. [5]

Lotus was founded and owned for many years by Colin Chapman. After his death and a period of financial instability, it was bought by General Motors, then Romano Artioli and then DRB-HICOM through its subsidiary Proton, which owned Lotus from 1996 to 2017. Lotus is currently majority-owned by Chinese multinational Geely. [6]

Lotus was previously involved in Formula One racing, via Team Lotus, winning the Formula One World Championship seven times. Notable Lotus cars include the Lotus Seven, the Elan, the Esprit and the Elise.

History

Early years

The company was formed in 1952 as Lotus Engineering Ltd. by Colin Chapman but had earlier origins in 1948 when Chapman built his first trials car in a garage. [7] The four letters in the middle of the logo represent Chapman's full name, Anthony Colin Bruce Chapman. When the logo was created, Chapman's original partners Michael and Nigel Allen were allegedly told that the letters stood for Colin Chapman and the Allen Brothers. [3] [ clarification needed ]

The first factory was situated in old stables behind the Railway Hotel in Hornsey, North London. Team Lotus, which was split from Lotus Engineering in 1954, was active and competitive in Formula One racing from 1958 to 1994. The Lotus Group of Companies was formed in 1959. This was composed of Lotus Cars Limited and Lotus Components Limited, which focused on road cars and customer competition-car production, respectively. Lotus Components Limited became Lotus Racing Limited in 1971, but the newly renamed entity ceased operation that same year. [8]

The company moved to a purpose-built factory at Cheshunt in 1959, [9] and since 1966 it has occupied a modern factory and road test facility at Hethel, near Wymondham in Norfolk. The site is a former World War II airfield, RAF Hethel, and the test track uses sections of the old runway.

In its early days, Lotus sold cars aimed at private racers and trialists. Its early road cars could be bought as kits in order to save on purchase tax. The kit car era ended in the late 1960s and early 1970s, with the Lotus Elan Plus Two as the first Lotus road car not offered in kit form, and the Lotus Eclat and Lotus Elite of the mid-1970s were offered only in factory-built versions.

After the Lotus Elite of the 1950s, which featured a complete fibreglass monocoque fitted with built-in steel pickup points for mounting major components, Lotus found critical and sales success in the 1960s with the Lotus Elan. This two-seater was later developed to two-plus-two form (Elan +2S). Lotus was notable for its use of fibreglass bodies, backbone chassis and overhead camshaft engines, initially supplied by Coventry Climax but later replaced by Lotus-Ford units (Ford block, Lotus head and twin-cam valve gear). Lotus also worked with Ford on the Lotus Cortina, a successful sports saloon.

Another Lotus of the late 1960s and early 1970s was the two-seater Lotus Europa, initially intended only for the European market, which paired a backbone chassis and lightweight body with a mid-mounted Renault engine, later upgraded to the Lotus-Ford twin-cam unit as used in the Elan.

The Lotus Seven, originating in the 1950s as a simple, lightweight open two-seater. continued in production into the early 1970s. Lotus sold the rights to produce the Seven to Caterham, which has continued to produce the car since then.

By the mid-1970s, Lotus sought to move upmarket with the launch of the Elite and Eclat models, four-seaters aimed at prosperous buyers, with features such as optional air conditioning and automatic transmissions. The mid-engine line continued with the Lotus Esprit, which became one of the company's longest-lived and most iconic models. Lotus developed its own series of four-cylinder DOHC engines, the Lotus 900 series, and later a V8, and turbocharged versions of the engines appeared in the Esprit.

Variants of the 900-series engine were supplied for the Jensen Healey sports car and the Sunbeam Lotus "hot hatchback". In the 1980s, Lotus collaborated with Vauxhall Motors to produce the Lotus Carlton, the fastest roadgoing Vauxhall car.

Financial troubles, death of Chapman

By 1980, Group Lotus was in serious financial trouble. Production had dropped from 1,200 units per year to a mere 383. This situation resulted from the worldwide economic recession combined with the virtual collapse of sales in the American market and limited development of the model range. [10]

In early 1982, Chapman forged an agreement with Toyota to exchange intellectual property and applied expertise. As a result, Lotus Engineering helped develop the Mk2 Toyota Supra, also known as the Toyota Celica XX. The partnership also allowed Lotus to launch the new Lotus Excel to replace the ageing Lotus Eclat. Using drivetrain and other components build by Toyota enabled Lotus to sell the Excel for £1,109 less than the outgoing Eclat. [10]

Looking to reenter the North American market, Chapman was approached by young law professor and investment banking consultant Joe Bianco, who proposed a new and separate American sales company for Lotus. [11] By creating an unprecedented tax-incentivised mechanism by which each investor received a personalised Lotus Turbo Esprit, the new American company, Lotus Performance Cars Inc. (LPCI), was able to provide fresh capital to Group Lotus in the United Kingdom. Former Ferrari North America general manager John Spiech was recruited to run LPCI, which imported the remarkable Giugiaro-designed Turbo Esprit for the first time. American sales began to quickly jump into six figures annually. [12]

Chapman died of a heart attack on 16 December 1982 at the age of 54. At the time, both Chapman and Lotus were linked to the DeLorean Motor Company scandal regarding the use of UK Government subsidies for the production of the DMC DeLorean, for which Lotus had designed the chassis. Chasing large sums of money that had disappeared from the DeLorean company, Lotus was besieged by Inland Revenue inspectors, who imposed an £84 million legal "protective assessment" on the company. [13] At the trial of Lotus accountant Fred Bushell, the judge insisted that had Chapman lived, he would have received a sentence "of at least 10 years." [14]

With Group Lotus near bankruptcy in 1983, David Wickins, the founder of British Car Auctions, agreed to become the new company chairman through an introduction by his friend Mark Thatcher. [13] Taking a combined 29% BCA/personal stake in Group Lotus, [15] Wickins negotiated with Inland Revenue and recruited new investors: merchant bank Schroeder-Wagg (14%), [15] Michael Ashcroft's Bermudian operating company Benor (14%) [16] and Sir Anthony Bamford of JCB (12%). [15] Wickins oversaw a complete turnaround in the company's fortunes, for which he was dubbed "the saviour of Lotus." [13] [17]

International ownership

Lotus final assembly Final assembly.jpg
Lotus final assembly

Despite having employed designer Peter Stevens to revamp the range and design two new concept cars, [18] by 1985 the British investors recognised that they lacked the capital to fund production and sought to find a buyer. [15] In January 1986, Wickins oversaw the majority sale of the Group Lotus companies and 100% of North American–based LPCI to General Motors. [15] After four months, Toyota sold GM its stake. By October 1986, GM had acquired a 91% stake in Group Lotus for £22.7 million, which allowed GM to legally force the company buyout. [15]

On 27 August 1993, GM sold the company for £30 million, to A.C.B.N. Holdings S.A. of Luxembourg, a company controlled by Italian businessman Romano Artioli, who also owned Bugatti Automobili SpA. In 1996, a majority share in Lotus was sold to Malaysian car company Proton.

Lotus Cars was awarded the Queen's Award for Enterprise for contribution to international trade, one of 85 companies receiving the recognition in that category in 2002. Lotus cars wore the badge of the award for several years. [19]

On 24 May 2017, Chinese multinational Geely announced that it was taking a 51% controlling stake in Lotus. [20] [21] The remaining 49% was acquired by Etika Automotive, a holding company of Proton's major shareholder Syed Mokhtar Albukhary. [22]

In January 2021, Geely announced a joint venture with Renault–Nissan–Mitsubishi Alliance and its Alpine division to develop a range of electric performance cars sharing some of their future platforms. [23] In April 2021, Lotus announced plans to produce only electric cars by 2028 and increase production numbers from around 1,500 per annum to tens of thousands. Geely and Etika Automotive provided two billion pounds (US$2.8 billion) to fund the changes. [24]

Lotus Technology, the electric-vehicle division of Lotus. which has a different ownership structure (30% by Etika and the rest by Geely and Nio Capital), was listed on Nasdaq in February 2024, following the completion of a merger with a special-purpose acquisition company affiliated with L Catterton. [25] After the listing, 10.3% of shares are held by the public. [26]

Operations

Currently organised as Group Lotus Limited, the business is divided into Lotus Cars and Lotus Engineering.

In addition to manufacturing sportscars, the company also acts as an engineering consultancy, providing engineering development—particularly of suspensions—for other car manufacturers. Lotus's powertrain department is responsible for the design and development of the four-cylinder Ecotec engine found in many of GM's Vauxhall, Opel, Saab, Chevrolet and Saturn cars. The American Elise and Exige models used the 1.8L VVTL-i I4 from Toyota's late Celica GT-S and the Matrix XRS.

Michael Kimberley, who had been a guiding figure at Lotus in the 1970s, returned as acting chief executive officer in May 2006. He chaired the executive committee of Lotus Group International Limited (LGIL), established in February 2006 with Syed Zainal Abidin (managing director of Proton Holdings Berhad) and Badrul Feisal (non-executive director of Proton Holdings Berhad). LGIL is the holding company of Lotus Group Plc.

Kimberley retired as CEO on 17 July 2009, [27] replaced on 1 October 2009 by former Ferrari executive Dany Bahar. Bahar intended to drive the brand into the expanding global luxury-goods sector and away from the company's traditional lightweight simplicity and pure driving-experience focus. Bahar was suspended on 25 May 2012 while an investigation into his conduct was undertaken. [28] On 7 June 2012, Lotus announced the termination of Bahar and the appointment of Aslam Farikullah as the new chief operating officer. [29] The ambitious plans for several new models were cancelled following Bahar's departure. Jean Marc Gales became CEO in 2014, and in 2017, he enabled the company to achieve its first profit in decades. Gales left the company in June 2018 for personal reasons and was replaced by Feng Qingfeng from Lotus Group's parent company, Geely.

October 2018 saw further senior personnel changes as Phil Popham was named CEO of Lotus Cars, with Qingfeng remaining in charge of Group Lotus. [30]

In January 2021, Matt Windle was appointed managing director of Lotus Cars after Phil Popham resigned. [31] [32]

Formula One and motorsport

Lotus 72 Lotus 72 Ford Cosworth.jpg
Lotus 72
Lotus 77 Lotus 77 Mont-Tremblant 02.JPG
Lotus 77
Lotus 99T Lotus 99T of Satoru Nakajima, 1987 1.jpg
Lotus 99T
Lotus E20 2012 Singapore GP - Raikkonen.jpg
Lotus E20

In its early days, the company encouraged its customers to race its cars, and it first entered Formula One through its sister company Team Lotus in 1958. A Lotus Formula One car driven by Stirling Moss won the marque's first Grand Prix in 1960 at Monaco. Moss drove a Lotus 18 entered by privateer Rob Walker. Major success came in 1963 with the Lotus 25, which, with Jim Clark driving, won Team Lotus its first F1 World Constructors' Championship. Clark was killed in April 1968 when the rear tyre of his Formula Two Lotus 48 failed while making a turn at a race in Hockenheim. His death was a severe blow to the team and to Formula One, as he had been the dominant driver of Lotus's early years. That year's championship was won by Clark's teammate Graham Hill.

Team Lotus is credited with making the mid-engine layout popular for IndyCars, developing the first monocoque Formula One chassis and integrating the engine and transaxle as chassis components. Team Lotus was among the pioneers in Formula One in adding wings and shaping the undersurface of the car to create downforce. It invented active suspension and was the first to move radiators to the sides of the car to improve aerodynamic performance.

Formula One Drivers' Championship winners for Lotus were Jim Clark in 1963 and 1965, Graham Hill in 1968, Jochen Rindt in 1970, Emerson Fittipaldi in 1972 and Mario Andretti in 1978. In 1973, Lotus won the constructors' championship only; the drivers' title went to Jackie Stewart of Tyrrell. Chapman saw Lotus beat Ferrari as the first marque to achieve 50 Grand Prix victories, even though Ferrari had won its first nine years sooner.

Until the late 1980s, Team Lotus continued to be a major player in Formula One. Ayrton Senna drove for the team from 1985 to 1987, winning twice in each year and achieving 17 pole positions.

Team Lotus established Classic Team Lotus in 1992, which continues to maintain Lotus F1 cars and run them in the FIA Historic Formula One Championship. It also preserves the Team Lotus archive and Works Collection of cars, under the management of Colin Chapman's son Clive.

Team Lotus's participation in Formula One ended after the 1994 season, when the team's cars were no longer competitive. Cars constructed by the team won a total of 79 Grand Prix races.

Former racing driver David Hunt (brother of F1 world champion James Hunt) purchased the name Team Lotus and licensed it to the Formula One team Pacific Racing, which was rebranded Pacific Team Lotus. [33] The Pacific Team folded at the end of the 1995 season.

The Lotus name returned to Formula One for the 2010 season, when a new Malaysian team called Lotus Racing was awarded an entry. The new team used the Lotus name under licence from Group Lotus and was unrelated to the original Team Lotus. In September 2010 Group Lotus, with agreement from its parent company Proton, terminated the licence for future seasons as a result of what it called "flagrant and persistent breaches of the licence by the team." Lotus Racing then announced that it had acquired Team Lotus Ventures Ltd, the company led by David Hunt, and with it full ownership of the rights to the Team Lotus brand and heritage. The team confirmed that it would be known as Team Lotus from 2011 onward.

In December 2010, Group Lotus announced the creation of Lotus Renault GP, the successor to the Renault F1 team. This team contested the 2011 season having purchased a title sponsorship deal with the team, with the option to buy shares in the future. The team's car for that season, the R31, was badged as a Renault, while Team Lotus's car, the T128, was badged as a Lotus. In May 2011, the British High Court of Justice ruled that Team Lotus could continue to use the Team Lotus name, but Group Lotus had sole right to use the Lotus name. As a consequence, for 2012 Lotus Renault GP was rebranded as Lotus F1 Team and its entries were badged as Lotus cars, while Team Lotus was renamed Caterham F1 Team (after the sportscar manufacturer owned by team principal Tony Fernandes) and its cars were badged as Caterhams.

Group Lotus was also involved in several other categories of motorsport. It sponsored the KV team in the IndyCar Series and the ART team in the GP2 and GP3 Series in 2011 and 2012. After fielding underpowered and uncompetitive engines in the 2012 Indianapolis 500, in which drivers Jean Alesi and Simona de Silvestro were black-flagged after ten laps for failing to maintain a competitive pace, Lotus was released from its contract and did not participate in future seasons.

Lotus car models

Current

Current Lotus models include:

Previous

Lotus Mark I, 1948 Lotus Mark 1.jpg
Lotus Mark I, 1948
Lotus Mark IX and Lotus 6 1955LotusMk9andLotus6.jpg
Lotus Mark IX and Lotus 6
Lotus Eleven Lotus Eleven S1 and Lotus Elite - Flickr - exfordy (cropped).jpg
Lotus Eleven
Lotus Elite Lotus Elite Reg 1962 1460 cc.JPG
Lotus Elite
Lotus Elan +2S, 1973 1973 Lotus Elan +2S 130-5 front Hatfield Broak Oak Essex England.jpg
Lotus Elan +2S, 1973
Lotus Europa S2 Lotus Europa.jpg
Lotus Europa S2
Lotus Eclat S2 Lotus Eclat reg 1979 1973 cc.JPG
Lotus Eclat S2
Lotus Esprit V8, 1999 1999 Lotus Esprit V8 type 918.jpg
Lotus Esprit V8, 1999
Lotus Elise S1 Lotus Elise Series 1.jpg
Lotus Elise S1
Lotus Elise GT1 Road Car, 1997 Lotus Elise GT1 Road Car.jpg
Lotus Elise GT1 Road Car, 1997
Lotus 340R Lotus 340R - Flickr - exfordy.jpg
Lotus 340R
Opel Speedster/Vauxhall VX220 (based on the Lotus Elise S2) Opel Speedster 2.2.JPG
Opel Speedster/Vauxhall VX220 (based on the Lotus Elise S2)
Lotus Emira 2022 Lotus Emira.jpg
Lotus Emira
Lotus Eletre Lotus Eletre IAA 2023 1X7A0668.jpg
Lotus Eletre


Announcements of future cars

Proposed new Lotus Esprit (announced 2010 but subsequently cancelled) 2013 Lotus Espirit (5216754882).jpg
Proposed new Lotus Esprit (announced 2010 but subsequently cancelled)

At the 2010 Paris Motorshow, Lotus announced five new models to be introduced over the next five years: [44] Their intention was to replace the Elise with an entirely different model, as well as to introduce two entirely new sports coupes, which would have been known as the Elite and the Elan, a new sports saloon, the Eterne, to rival the Aston Martin Rapide and Maserati Quattroporte, and a modern interpretation of the Esprit supercar. [45]

It became apparent in July 2012 that the firm's financial difficulties had made this plan impossible to implement, and initially all but the Esprit project were cancelled. [46] [47] Subsequently, the Esprit project was also cancelled. [48]

Lotus also showed an unnamed city car concept using its 1.2L range-extender engine. [49] In 2011, Lotus revealed this as the Lotus Ethos, a plug-in hybrid car based on the EMAS concept from its parent company Proton, and likely to be primarily built by Proton in Malaysia. [45] This car has also been cancelled. [50]

Lotus CEO at the time Jean Marc Gales confirmed in 2017 that development of an SUV is currently under way, after the company was acquired by the Chinese automotive manufacturer, Geely. [51]

In July 2019 Lotus revealed the Evija, a 1,470 kW (2,000 PS; 1,970 hp) and 1,700 N⋅m (1,254 lb⋅ft) electric supercar.

In January 2021, Lotus teased that the Elise, Exige, and Evora would be discontinued and be replaced by the Type 131 which had yet to be released at the time of announcement. In July 2021, Lotus revealed that this new model is called Emira.

In November 2021, Lotus teased the future introduction of the future Type 132 SUV, later named as Eletre. [52]

In September 2023, Lotus announced the Emeya, the company's first electric GT car. [53]

The Lotus Theory 1 is a sports car concept set to be revealed on 16 September 2024. [54]

Lotus engines

Lotus Engineering

Lotus Engineering Limited is an offshoot of Lotus Cars, which provides engineering consultancy to third-party companies primarily in the automotive industry. As well as Hethel in the United Kingdom Lotus has engineering centres in Ann Arbor, USA, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and Shanghai, China. In 2000, Lotus Engineering, Inc. was established with an office in Ann Arbor, Michigan. [58]

Engineering demonstrators

APX and VVA

The APX (also known as the "Aluminium Performance Crossover") is an aluminium concept vehicle revealed at the 2006 Geneva Motor Show built on Lotus Engineering's Versatile Vehicle Architecture (VVA).

Whereas the VVA technology was to be used in the development of a new mid-engine sportscar for Lotus cars, the APX is, in fact, a high-performance 7-seat MPV with four-wheel drive and a front-mounted V6 engine from Lotus Engineering's Powertrain division. The engine was designed and developed to be available in a 2.2-litre naturally aspirated and 3.0-litre supercharged variations. An electric version was also shown in the 2007 NADA show.

Versatile Vehicle Architecture (VVA) is an effort by the Lotus car manufacturing company to reduce the investment needed for producing unique, niche-market cars by sharing a number of common components.

Cars produced using VVA:

Projects undertaken by Lotus Engineering

DeLorean with Lotus designed chassis 1981 Delorean DMC (29043312252).jpg
DeLorean with Lotus designed chassis
Sinclair C5 Museum Collections Centre - 25 Dollman Street - Garage - Sinclair C5 Tricycle (7279692598).jpg
Sinclair C5
Dodge EV Dodge Circuit EV--DC.jpg
Dodge EV
Tesla Roadster Roadster San Diego.jpg
Tesla Roadster

Examples of work undertaken by Lotus Engineering include:

Lotus based cars

Electric vehicles

Evija

Lotus Evija Lotus Evija front.jpg
Lotus Evija

Lotus unveiled their first production electric hypercar called the Evija in July 2019, production would be limited to 130 units and is scheduled to begin in summer 2020 and is being delivered to customers in early 2023. The car was undergoing development under the codename Type 130. The Evija makes use of a 70 kWh battery pack developed in conjunction with Williams Advanced Engineering. There are 4 electric motors, one placed on each wheel supported by an Integral powertrain. The powertrain is rated at a total output of 2,039 PS (1,500 kW; 2,011 hp) with 1,704 N⋅m (1,257 lb⋅ft) of torque. The Evija has a range of 346 km (215 miles). [64] [65] [66] [67] [34]

Other cars

The Tesla Roadster is based on the Elise chassis. On 11 July 2005, Tesla and Lotus entered an agreement about products and services based on the Lotus Elise, where Lotus provided advice on designing and developing a vehicle as well as producing partly assembled vehicles. [68] [69]

Lotus Engineering has established a group dedicated to hybrid and electric vehicles. [70]

Lotus Engineering developed the Evora 414E as their first hybrid concept car. Featuring a total hybrid range of more than 300 miles. [71]

Lotus joined Jaguar Cars, MIRA Ltd and Caparo on a luxury hybrid executive sedan project called "Limo-Green"—funded by the UK Government Technology Strategy Board. The vehicle will be a series plug-in hybrid. [72] [73]

See also

Further reading

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References

  1. 1 2 "Lotus Technology Reports Unaudited Fourth Quarter and Full Year 2023 Financial Results". media.lotuscars.com. Lotus Cars Media Site. Retrieved 13 April 2024.
  2. ↑ Lotus Cars Ltd. Annual Report and Financial Statements for the year ended 31 December 2021.
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  10. 1 2 "The Final Chapman Years". LotusEspritWorld.com. Retrieved 14 July 2012.
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  14. ↑ Lawrence, Mike (2002). Wayward Genius. Breedon Books.
  15. 1 2 3 4 5 6 "The Toyota and GM Link". LotusEspritWorld.com. Retrieved 14 July 2012.
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  34. 1 2 Calin, Razvan (14 October 2022). "1,500-kW Lotus Evija EV Is the World's Most Powerful Production Car, Hits 217 MPH". Auto Evolution.
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  40. ↑ The rights to the Seven were sold in 1973 to Caterham Cars. Updated versions of this 1957 design are also produced by other speciality firms, including Westfield Sportscars and Donkervoort. Originally the number seven was applied to a Riley-powered Formula 2 car, but the vehicle was never completed in its original form, finally emerging instead as the Clairmonte Special, a two-seat sports car powered by a Lea-Francis engine.
  41. ↑ A mid-engined sports car, launched in the early 1970s. It was styled by Italian designer Giorgetto Giugiaro. The Esprit started with a light, 4-cylinder design, which went through several iterations of turbo-charging and electronic upgrades, before finally being replaced by a highly advanced V8. The last Lotus Esprit rolled off the production line on 20 February 2004, after 28 years in production. A total of 10,675 Esprits were built since production began in 1976.
  42. ↑ GT inspired two-seater claimed to offer a more upmarket sportscar experience, although it is based on the same chassis as the Elise and Exige, limiting accommodation and practicality. Power comes from a Lotus-tuned variant of the turbocharged four-cylinder engine which powers the VX220. The Europa has been criticised in the motoring press for being expensive and for lacking equipment and practicality compared to rivals like the Porsche Cayman.
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