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Lotus Type 133 sedan caught testing in China

Before the Lotus Eletre battery-electric SUV debuted in March, Chinese car spotters snapped photos of prototypes in testing. The same has happened again with the Lotus codenamed Type 133. An image of the tester parked along a curb showed up on the Chinese site Weibo, with a camouflaged Eletre in the background left and an uncamouflaged Eletre parked opposite. The Type 133 is a four-door sedan being developed as a driver's car, benchmarked against and planning to take on the Porsche Taycan as well as the Audi E-Tron GT. Slated for a reveal next year, recent Lotus trademark applications for the names Envya and Etude lead watchers to believe the Type 133 will adopt one of those monikers for its debut in March, Envya getting the short odds. Lotus SVP of design Peter Horbury said the 133 wouldn't be just a smaller Eletre, we'll need to wait until the covers come off to know the truth of it. What we can tell for now is that the sedan doesn't look far off the kind of four-door we'd have expected from Lotus if the English maker had got into family sedans before the electric age. Peeking through the window, the driver's area gives off the same vibes as in the Eletre thanks to a squared steering wheel and minimalist instrument panel. An earlier spy shot picked up by Car News China shows a rear door with pillarless window. The biggest surprise is how long it looks. Some of that length could be a trick of the angle and the camera lens; even so, this won't be a wallflower. And why should it be? Said to sit on the same Electric Premium Architecture (EPA) as the Eletre — a derivative of parent company Geely's Sustainable Experience Architecture (SEA) that supports the Polestar 4 and the new Smart range — we expect overlap in powertrain possibilities. That could mean an entry-level battery pack of 92 kilowatt-hours juicing a dual-motor drivetrain with 595 horsepower and 524 pound-feet of torque, and a 120-kWh pack powering four motors producing 893 hp and 727 lb-ft. That latter model should get the Type 133 from standstill to 62 miles per hour in under 3 seconds. After the sedan debuts, the Type 134 SUV isn't anticipated until 2025, a challenger to the Porsche Macan EV. The following year, Lotus returns to its roots with the Type 135 sports car that will usher the current Emira into retirement. Related video:

The Caterham Seven Sprint is a perfect retro-style British roadster

A Caterham Seven oozes retro style. Modern engineering may mean the car no longer shares any parts with its original Lotus counterpart, but one look at the little roadster and it's easy to see the car's heritage. Caterham loves pumping out variants of the Seven, and the 2016 Goodwood Revival seemed like the perfect place to announce the latest version, the throwback Caterham Seven Sprint. Caterham calls the Seven Sprint a design "that was seemingly planned in the mid-1960s but never launched." It's apt then that the company is using it to kick off its "60 Years of the Seven" celebrations. The Seven Sprint is based off the European-only 160 model, meaning it's powered by an 80-hp turbocharged three-cylinder Suzuki engine. While the bonkers Seven 620 R may be the biggest and baddest Caterham available, the bare bones Seven 160 just feels more appropriate here. There are a number of retro styling touches throughout the car. The limited edition Seven Sprint comes wrapped in one of six colors originally offered by Lotus in 1966 and 1967. The Chassis is powder-coated grey, just like the Series 2 Lotus Seven. The cream-colored wheels feature polished hubcaps, while the interior features a wood-trimmed wheel and the interior is trimmed in a wonderful shade of red. The body has been slightly reworked to look more like the original Lotus designed car. Mechanically, not much has changed. Power from the Suzuki three is fed through a five-speed manual. Some of the suspension bits are similar to Colin Chapman's original design, but that's true of the standard 160. The car should be just as much of a riot as any other Caterham, just packed to the gills with style. The Seven Sprint is available only as a fully-complete factory car. It's unknown if any of the 60 produced will make it to the US. Prices in the UK start at GBP27,995, or about $37,000. Related Video: Featured Gallery Caterham Sprint Image Credit: Caterham Cars Design/Style Lotus Automakers Convertible caterham seven

Lotus says the electric Evija is a trailblazer that will influence future cars

Lotus, a company known for making nimble sports cars, is stepping outside of its comfort zone to develop a 2,000-horsepower electric hypercar named Evija. Battery technology is heavy, so the limited-edition coupe won't be a featherweight like the Elise, but the firm's chief engineer told Autoblog it will be imbued with Lotus-ness. Keeping weight in check is easier said than done when you're dealing with four individual electric motors and a 70-kilowatt-hour lithium-ion battery pack. Matt Windle, the man in charge of the company's research and development department, explained the widespread use of composite materials like carbon fiber helps offset the mass. He cited clever packaging as another weight-saving measure. The part the steering column is mounted to is also used as a ducting for the HVAC system, for example. "We try to combine many requirements into one part to keep the weight down," Windle said. All told, the Evija (pictured) tips the scale at about 3,700 pounds. That's remarkably light for an electric hypercar, but it's heavier than any Lotus model in recent memory. And yet, Windle assured us it will still feel like a Lotus behind the wheel. That's partly because the battery pack is where the four- or six-cylinder would be in a mid-engined car rather than directly under the passenger compartment. This configuration gives the two passengers the impression of being wrapped in the cockpit while lowering the center of gravity. "We have the ability to deliver the driving dynamics and the performance that customers expect from a Lotus. It's the same dynamic setup, but with a different propulsion system," Windle pointed out. Lotus will initially cap Evija production at 130 examples, so there likely won't be enough units to fill demand, but that's par for the course when it comes to halo models. The numerous lessons learned from the project will trickle down into other models in the coming years, however, and the company has several products in the pipeline. "People do not understand that Lotus is still going. We want them to know we're still here, that we can still innovate," Windle said. "[The Evija] is not just a standalone product. The design language and the content that's in the car will give us direction as we shape future products that are coming. You'll see it as a trailblazer."