Lotus gears up for new sports car launch
Hurricane Way site completes first chassis as CEO confirms a new model for this summer
2021 was already set to be a big year for Lotus, what with the Elise anniversary and the Evija's imminent arrival. Now it's set to be even more significant, with CEO Phil Popham confirming that a new sports car will be shown in the summer, ahead of production in 2022.
Mentioned in an interview with Automotive News, this new Lotus isn't the product of the Alpine collaboration; but rather a new combustion-engined model that sounds like it will effectively replace the entire ageing line up, from Elise to Evora. Popham confirmed in the interview that the new car would be offered "in versions ranging from £55,000 to £105,000", which covers pretty much everything from Alpine A110 to Porsche 911, and is therefore quite a brief to fulfil.
Details aren't any more specific than that for the moment, although usability - so often the Lotus pitfall - was said to be a focus of development. It'll also assist with sales in the US, Lotus's second-biggest market ahead of Germany (the UK is third).
As Popham says in the interview: "To be successful in the sports car market you have to be successful in the US." Hard to argue with that. As such the reworked platform is said to make getting in and out easier, as well as featuring entirely new electrical architecture for increased connectivity. Perhaps not a sentence you would expect to read in relation to a Lotus, but the facts speak for themselves: Lotus sales were up 4.4 per cent in 2020, to 1,378 units. Porsche sold 1,063 718 Caymans and Boxster last July alone. In Europe.
The need for a car to sell in greater numbers is obvious, as Lotus knows only too well. And the foundations are in place already: today the firm announced that the first chassis has been completed at the new facility on Hurricane Way in Norwich. This is the plant with the capacity to build "several thousand chassis per year", says Lotus; with only 1,500 said to be reserved for the Elise, Evora and Exige for 2021, that implies the new car will be in production there pretty soon. Indeed, Lotus's release states the factory has had tooling upgraded "in readiness for a new range of Lotus sports cars to be launched in the coming years." Which is exciting.
After all, it's not every day (or every year, even) that a new Lotus is confirmed by the CEO. Especially not when Lotus actually appears in the position to pull it off, backed as it is now by Geely and endowed with a swanky new manufacturing plant. With this news as well as the Alpine announcement last week, Lotus is already off to a flying start in 2021 - what comes next?
If only we could guess what the first letter was going to be. Given it's to be the last internal combustion... might I humbly suggest the Lotus Elegy?
So Germany is first? ie, this is meant to be "... second biggest market, *after* Germany (the UK is third)"? That would still be a clumsy sentence, but not logically impossible.
It's going to be a completely new chassis, in all likelihood a Volvo rather than Toyota engine because of the changed group ownership, and will surely be new visuals based on the Evija styling cues.
I think I'm going to be disappointed.
I guess if you're that pessimistic about it you can only be pleasantly surprised right?
Glad we've got these chips nicely pre-pissed on, got any and all sparks of enthusiasm well damped down and firmly turned our back on what might well be the last petrol powered Lotus.
With that out of the way, what shall we do for the next six months while we wait to say, "I told you so, should be 20K cheaper, 100BHP more and come with a Porsche badge."? Maybe we can all take turns explaining our favourite examples of why things that aren't exactly to our liking are terrible and shouldn't be allowed.
I'll start. People on the internet disagree with me and that just can't be right.
If only we could guess what the first letter was going to be. Given it's to be the last internal combustion... might I humbly suggest the Lotus Elegy?
Getting rather old but everyone loves her.
I’d like to see a new ‘almost supercar’ along the lines of the new NSX or R8 bearing the Esprit name. I believe it’s already been revealed that it will actually be another similar car to slot between the Exige and Evora, maybe a new Europa?
Why is a nice low miles S1 111S worth over £20k now when a Boxster S in equally nice condition and with low miles from the same year is worth less than 50% of that?
Conversely why are post 17 Elises still £30k plus? You can buy brand new for under £40.
I’d love another Elise new, before we all have to go electric. I’m sure the forthcoming final or anniversary edition will be right up my cul de sac as well. However,
Much as I’d really like one, it’s just not compelling with a price starting with a 4 let alone 5.
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