Tuesday 30th October 2001

Surfing About

Lotus news from around the web

---

[lotusetude]

Premature, sure, but its very interesting that Lotus Cars USA is doing a soft launch of the Federal Elise at the January Greater LA Auto Show with 3 Euro Elises, and will seek feedback. Its also very understandable that Lotus would claim a Federal Elise is pure speculation, and that the quotes have been taken "out of context" - Lotus has no desire to disappoint the largest sports car market in the world - they've been there, done that before! Lotus are just playing their cards close to the chest after losing about 40MGBP financially for the year - and that makes great sense. With all due respect to the domestic market for the Elise in the UK, there is a very vibrant aftermarket for tuning the Elise, so the introduction of a heavier Federal Elise with more horsepower should not have very much impact domestically. The Federal Elise is not strictly aimed at the USA, but the worldwide international market includeing Asia and Austrailia - which Lotus have got to develop to justify their increased production capacity. The Federal Elise will pave the way for the Esprit's successor in the international market as well after 2003.