More than a decade has passed, but it looks like we could finally get a new one Lotus before 2021 is out. The company puts the finishing touches on yours next and last gasoline sports car, which is scheduled to debut in the summer, before production increases in 2022. In fact, exciting moments.
On the other hand, every Lotus currently on sale will stop this year. Say goodbye to Elise, Exige and Evora, a trio that led the British manufacturer for much longer than expected or deserved. The news was confirmed in a press release today.
The Evora went into production in 2009 and is, above all, the only current Lotus model that can still be legally purchased in the United States. The Elise of the “Series 3”, the last one, came out in 2010. Although under the slightly stretched skin, the Series 3 is really just the second-generation Elise dating back to 2001. Hell, even everything generated some Opel and Vauxhall variants I totally forgot about it so far.
Note that Lotus’s inability to get past Elise, Exige, and Evora did not stem from the lack of effort. There was that time when the car manufacturer presented itself at the 2010 Paris Motor Show with five proposals for new performance vehicles, i a very little Lotus supermini called Ethos (or “City Car” if you look at the license plate).
At the time, Lotus was under Proton’s leadership and no part of that vision of the brand’s future occurred. Then, CEO Dany Bahar was fired two years later, reportedly due to misuse of company funds, and Proton was swallowed up by Malaysian manufacturing conglomerate DRB-Hicom.
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Nothing really started to change until 2017, when Geely acquired a majority stake in Lotus. The 2,000-horsepower Evija hypercar was the first Lotus-era product to break the cover (you see it on the right, in the shadow of the photo above), and these three covered cars are supposed to replace those coming out this year. According to the press release:
To recognize the next family of efficiency vehicles, Lotus has released an image that hints at the new generation of products that will follow Elise, Exige and Evora, which have entered their final year of production in 2021.
Under one of these roofs is presumably this new model of pure internal combustion, which is supposed to start at about $ 75,000. Lotus CEO Phil Popham has mocked that this vehicle will have a “real focus on usability” and that it has been designed so that owners “can live with it on a day-to-day basis.”
Below is the car mentioned in this version, codenamed Type 131. It appears to be different from the aforementioned $ 75,000 Lotus; Coach it looks like the Type 131 is the spiritual successor to the Spirit, which will be powered by a V6 hybrid engine and will start at a “price set at the lower six digits”, placing it above the Evora in order to drop. Don’t forget that rumored SUV, which wasn’t included in this family photo.
Geely has grown Lotus substantially over the past four years to meet these challenges. The British carmaker reports that 670 employees have joined its ranks since it became the property of a new company and plans to add 250 more people in the coming years. If there was ever a time for Lotus to change, it’s right now.