Lotus is to make about 350 redundancies at its Hethel headquarters after losing a major engineering consultancy project.

The carmaker would not reveal which particular project had been cancelled, but says production of Lotus cars is unaffected and the cuts will be in non-manufacturing sections only.

Owned by the Malaysian manufacturer Proton, Lotus employs 1,500 people at Hethel, and carries out engineering services for several carmakers, as well as producing its own sports cars.

The company says demand for its Elise and Exige models “continues to exceed production”, and it will still proceed with plans for a £4m engineering centre of excellence next to its plant in 2006.