"It was a very small business then. I think we knew everybody by first name. So I did get to work with Elon a lot," he replied.
"I found him incredible, to be honest. His speed of thought and capacity for taking in information was amazing - really amazing.
"I did find out his secret, though, because there was one day we went to see a supplier and we had been in meetings all day and he hadn't taken a single note.
"And I thought, 'How the hell does he remember all this.
Lotus managing director Matt Windle at Giltrap Group in Auckland earlier this week. Photo / Dean Purcell
"Then as soon as we got in the car, I went to start chatting and he said, 'Hold on a minute' and he got on his PDA and just downloaded everything that everybody had told him.
"He didn't want to do that in front of them. So think that was a ploy so everybody just thought he remembered everything he was told."
Some meetings require fewer technical notes than others: Musk with then US President Donald Trump after a SpaceX launch in May 2020. Photo / Getty Images
More broadly, the Lotus managing director says, "Elon had a real impact on how to manage the business now with not getting bogged down in meetings and a mentality of quick decision making and trust in execs to make the right decisions."
That's the modus operandi Lotus needs as it shoots to transform from a maker of 1500 sports cars a year to 100,000 vehicles annually by 2028, with most of them lifestyle EVs.
The transition is being bankrolled by China's Geely, which recapitalised the British car maker to the tune of $2.8 billion.
"When Geely came in, we called Lotus a 70-year-old startup," Windle said.
