Lotus has appointed Marcus Blake as its commercial director responsible for all sales, marketing and aftersales activities worldwide.

Blake joins Lotus as owners, Geely and Etika, look to embark on a period of investment for product development.

Prior to joining Lotus, Blake held a number of global commercial roles at Aston Martin, most recently that of global marketing director for Aston Martin.

Feng Qingfeng, chief executive of Group Lotus, said: “With extensive global experience leading sales, marketing, aftersales and dealer development, Marcus will help drive forward our exciting plans for Lotus in the future.

“We plan to grow our business through a global footprint of highly professional dealers, ahead of the introduction of high performance, innovative Lotus sports cars that will further grow this legendary brand.”

Blake holds a BEng - Mechanical Engineering Degree from the University of Warwick.

Lotus is expected to introduce a new Elise by 2020. It's also expected that an electric sports cars will follow in Lotus' future product line-up.

Geely also owns Volvo and in 2013 bought black cab manufacturer London Taxi International.