The Chinese-owned carmaker Lotus will lay off up to two fifths of workers at its British factory as the company grapples with the impact of US trade tariffs.

On Thursday, the business said as many as 550 roles would be cut in the UK owing to “current market conditions”.

The move comes just months after Lotus was forced to deny it was set to close the factory in Hethel, Norfolk, where it employs about 1,300 people.

A company spokesman said the job cuts were “designed to enable Lotus Cars to operate with a flexible and agile business model, allowing it to ramp operations and resources in line with demand, as and when needed”.

She added: “We believe this is necessary in order to secure a sustainable future for the company in today’s rapidly evolving automotive environment, which is seeing uncertainty with rapid changes in global policies including tariffs.

“The brand remains fully committed to the UK and Norfolk will remain the home of Lotus’s sports car, motor sports and engineering consulting operations.”

Production at Hethel was placed on temporary hold earlier this year following Donald Trump’s decision to impose tariffs on foreign cars shipped to the US.

The company has been based there for 59 years, in converted hangars that previously housed US air force bomber squadrons during the Second World War.

It still uses the site to manufacture the Emira sports car – the last traditional petrol vehicle the company says it will ever make – and small numbers of the Evija electric hypercar.

But this year exports to the US, one of the company’s top markets, were hit by tariffs of 27.5pc as Mr Trump, the US president, demanded better trading terms from allies.

Lotus – which has been owned by Chinese giant Geely since 2017 – also makes its flagship electric models, the Eletre SUV and Emeya grand tourer, at facilities in Wuhan, China, meaning they have been subject to even more punishing tariffs in the past year.

Executives recently raised the prospect of opening up a factory in America to avoid the levies. On Thursday, Lotus said it was “exploring greater resource sharing” across its various operations as well as “third-party manufacturing”.

The job cuts at Hethel will be seen as an about-turn after Geely previously pumped £500m into a modern revamp of the factory’s production lines, aimed at boosting their capacity from 1,500 cars a year to more than 5,000.

Broaden your horizons with award-winning British journalism. Try The Telegraph free for 1 month with unlimited access to our award-winning website, exclusive app, money-saving offers and more.