Lotus recruits Donato Coco, Ferrari's former design chief

HETHEL // Donato Coco has been recruited by Group Lotus, the Malaysian-owned British car maker, as its new director of design. Coco has previously worked at Ferrari and Citroën. Coco's design credits at Ferrari included the Ferrari 430 Scuderia Coupe, the California, 599XX and the F458 Italia. He also worked on the Xsara, Picasso, C3, C2 and C1 at Citroën. He will be responsible for all matters of design at Lotus Cars and Lotus Engineering and will collaborate with Russell Carr, the car maker's existing head of design. Announcing Coco's appointment, Dany Bahar, Group Lotus' chief executive officer said: "The appointment of Donato Coco strengthens the already talented team. We have a busy few years ahead of us [including] the introduction of an all new range of Lotus cars." The car maker is currently working on a replacement for the Esprit supercar, which went out of production in 2004, as well as an electric vehicle.