2002 Lotus Esprit on 2040-cars

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Lotus to add 2 new sports cars by 2020, SUV by 2022

British sports carmaker Lotus will bring two new sports cars in 2020 with an SUV right behind them in 2021 or '22, becoming the brand's first all-new vehicles since it began production of the Evora back in 2009.CAR Magazine reports the news in an interview with Lotus CEO Jean-Marc Gales. Of the two cars, he said only that one will be a replacement for an existing car, with the other likely to be a limited-edition, track-focused car slotted above the Evora. It'll base the cheaper of the two on an evolution of Lotus' bonded aluminum chassis, while the other will get a new carbon-fiber chassis and become the brand's new performance flagship. Chinese automaker Geely, which also owns Volvo, purchased a majority ownership stake in Lotus last year, adding what's hoped to be a measure of stability and badly needed investment to years of ownership changes and endless re-iterations of existing models. With Geely money backing the operation, it's likely these two vehicles will be more likely to come to fruition than the last batch of ambitious concepts from the company, which included a new Esprit, Elite, and Elan. Those never progressed beyond the concept stage. The company soon after revealed the Evora GT430 as its fastest, most-powerful road car to date, with a 0-to-60 time of 3.7 seconds, and it put the same supercharged V6 in the Exige to bump up horsepower to 430 and increase torque to 325 pound-feet. Meanwhile, Lotus is ending production of the 3-Eleven this year, and Gales has previously said the company was developing a new Elise for 2020, so it's likely that's one of the new cars. The Elise and Exige were withdrawn from the U.S. back in 2011. The new vehicles will benefit from technology from Geely's network of suppliers, and Geely is also apparently hiring new Lotus staff and investing "millions" in Lotus' production lines. Lotus said its sales were way up in both Europe and the U.S. during its last fiscal year, and while the brand still lost money it narrowed its financial losses and said it expected to be profitable before tax for the current fiscal year.Related Video:

Lotus Type 132 electric crossover spotted testing in China

Thanks to Carscoops, we know that Weibo Chinese social media user Ductile Iron BX spotted a Lotus Type 132 prototype testing on Chinese roads. This is the vehicle that will inaugurate the English sports car maker's transition to a battery-electric future and its future as a purveyor of crossovers, the once dirty word among the light-and-simple crowd that's just too profitable to ignore. In profile, the long, low roof makes the Type 132 look more like a jacked-up Allroad-style wagon than a traditional crossover. The heavy camo can't hide the jutting tail that holds a deployable spoiler. Those regular-sized wheels look good, but they don't fill the arches that way we've come to expect from speedy SUVs; we won't be surprised if larger rims appear on the debut model, with an option for even larger rims. The treatment of the rear quarter glass, which looks like a vent, is a neat touch. We know black drapery hides other touches like an active lower grille, its hexagonal mesh peppered with panels that twirl open to provide the right combination of powertrain cooling and vehicle aerodynamics, and some kind of sensor unit rising from the roof. Nor can the camouflage hide the sharp lines throughout, from the concave front fascia to the arced rear fenders to the dramatic rear bumper. This could be a good looking start to Lotus' people-hauler era. The Type 132 is expected to debut this spring, riding on the firm's Evolution Architecture for premium vehicles and featuring 800-volt electrics and a battery with a possible 120-kilowatt capacity. Lotus has said the crossover will reach 60 miles per hour in under 3. seconds, an estimate that probably refers to the dual-motor version that might put out as much as 750 horsepower. Even though the Type 132's place in the luxury segment will see it lined up against entries like the Aston Martin DBX and Porsche Cayenne, this being the first super-sporty CUV from this OEM, it will undoubtedly spend the early part of its life thrown into battles with the Tesla Model X. Related video: This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings.

Race Recap: For the 2013 Monaco Grand Prix, NASCAR comes to the principality

Lots of contact, debris cautions, trips into the wall, full-course yellows and a red flag - these are the kinds of racing terms you unbox when you want to have a conversation about NASCAR... or the Formula One grand prix of Monaco. In this case we're not talking about the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte, we're talking about 78 laps in the South of France that even featured a fallen camera cable just like that stock-car race.
This year, Mercedes-AMG Petronas drivers treated their chassis' like busses instead of F1 cars, Romain Grosjean treated his Lotus like a battering ram, Sergio Perez kept sticking his McLaren's nose in places and eventually got it smacked, and maybe the size of the drivers' mirrors should be changed instead of the tires as there were almost as many firsts as there were crashes. Plenty of F1 fans wish Monaco were removed from the calendar, yet even though it doesn't specialize in traditional thrills, that doesn't mean nothing happens during the parade through - and into - the barriers.