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Lotus confirms new Emira will be its last car powered by gasoline

Lotus is four years into the 10-year Vision80 plan that it announced at its 70th anniversary in 2018, and according to Matt Windle, managing director of Lotus Cars, the brand is "on track" to completely revitalize its line of sports cars as it branches out into profitable new automotive segments. Windle also confirmed the name of Lotus' upcoming new vehicle: "The spirit and passion that gave the world the Elise, Exige and Evora will live on in the next generation of cars – cars like the all-new Lotus Emira." The British company's sports car replacement, previously known as the Type 131, will make its virtual debut on July 6 before being shown in public at the Goodwood Festival of Speed that begins on July 8. Lotus confirmed that the Emira will be offered solely with internal combustion engine options and will not offer hybrid power, and that the powerplant comes from "an exciting new powertrain partnership" with options that are "new to Lotus." The company's Elise, Exige and Evora used four- and six-cylinder engines sourced from Toyota and tuned specifically for high-performance use. The Emira, which will be priced similarly to the Evora, will be the last production Lotus powered by gasoline, and it will be built atop a brand-new "Elemental" platform that relies on the brand's familiar extruded aluminum-intensive chassis. Three more platforms are currently in development, and these four architectures will provide the basis for the company's planned expansion. The next we expect to see in production is the Hypercar architecture that forms the basis of the upcoming Lotus Evija. The electric Evija and its "Extreme" platform will start rolling out of the Hethel headquarters later this year. Lotus' "Evolution" platform is next, and it will underpin "an all-new range of lifestyle vehicles" that "will catapult Lotus into a new era of higher retail volumes and significant revenues." We take that to mean SUVs. This Premium architecture was reportedly designed by Lotus in the UK with collaboration from other brands under the Geely umbrella in China and Sweden and Germany. Finally, Lotus and Alpine have consummated their recently announced partnership and will launch an "E-Sports" platform that will be "will be flexible and modular." We expect a range of electric vehicles on this architecture that could include everything from sports cars and hatchbacks to crossovers and other utility shapes.

Lotus electric sedan due in 2023 to take on Porsche Taycan

Lotus took a massive step towards the mainstream when it released the Eletre (pictured above), an electric crossover developed with volume in mind. It will continue walking in this direction by launching its first sedan, and a recent report suggests the model will be aimed at the Porsche Taycan. Known as the Type 133 internally, and referred to as a four-door coupe, the sedan will join the firm's portfolio of so-called "lifestyle" EVs. It will borrow some styling cues from the Eletre (pictured above) but it won't be merely a scaled-down crossover. "There has to be some continuity and family identity," explained Peter Horbury, Lotus' senior vice president of design, in an interview with British magazine Autocar. "Families aren't made up entirely of triplets or quadruplets. Every member of a family can have their own character," he added. While the Type 133 — a name that won't make the leap to production; the Eletre was called Type 132 — won't be as basic as, say, an Elise, it will be positioned as a driver's car. Gavan Kershaw, Lotus' director of attributes and product integrity, told Autocar that the engineering team benchmarked the Porsche Taycan during the Eletre's development process and the lessons learned will be applied to the Type 133. Like its taller sibling, the sedan should feature a long list of technology features, including an air suspension system and rear-wheel steering. Powertrain specifications haven't been released yet, but the fact that the Eletre and the Type 133 will be closely related underneath the sheet metal gives us some idea of what to expect. Power for the first Lotus crossover comes from a pair of electric motors that zap the four wheels with around 600 horsepower. The battery pack's capacity checks in at over 100 kilowatt-hours, and an 800-volt electrical architecture enables fast-charging technology. Lotus pegs the Eletre's maximum driving range at 373 miles on the testing cycle used in Europe. It's reasonable to assume that the sedan, which should be lighter and more aerodynamic, should be capable of going further on a charge. Lotus is expected to unveil the Type 133 in 2023. The model will be built alongside the Eletre in Wuhan, China. Related video: This content is hosted by a third party. To view it, please update your privacy preferences. Manage Settings.

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: