According to the company’s boss Danny Bahar, Evora (Lotus’ most recent new sports car) will stay into production until at least 2017, when it will be replaced with the new Elan . This changes the initial plan that called for the Evora to be replaced as early as 2012.
The company’s boss Danny Bahar also stated for Autocar that Lotus is building its own V8 instead of using Toyota’s unit from the Lexus IS-F, as research from the Paris Motor Show floor concerning the new Esprit revealed that customers were unwilling to pay the price for a $100,000+ supercar powered by a Toyota engine.
If everything goes well, the new Esprit will be launched in 2013. According to Wolf Zimmerman who heads the engineering department, it seems that the new engine is 40% smaller than the Toyota’s, solving packaging problems. He also added that it could form the basis for a new four-cylinder unit, being effectively one bank of the V8, to power smaller models in the range such as the new Elise and Exige.
Beside all these, Bahar also confirmed that the Ethos city car will indeed enter production, selling as a Lotus small-volume luxury small car, probably as a pure EV or a hybrid, in Europe and as a more affordable Proton with conventional internal combustion engines in Asia.
“The priority is to improve the quality, to give the car a soul, ” Bahar said. He also added: “We should have some commonality across the two cars, so we can start with developing a soft-top mechanism that goes into both.”
Source: Carscoop
