Like many other automotive brands at the moment, Lotus is going through a historic transformation. At a recent event, the brand announced the launch of a new model to its line up, the Emira, which despite not featuring any kind of electrification, will be the last of its kind as Lotus has announced every new car launched afterwards will be electric.
As part of its Driving Tomorrow event, Lotus revealed product, strategy and technology announcements, and an update to its Vision80 transformation strategy. Vision80, the plan launched by Lotus in 2018 soon after the company’s 70th anniversary, commits Lotus to meet its transformational targets by the time of its 80th birthday in 2028.
Lotus set pulses racing with the teasing of a brand new model, the Emira, which has been inspired style-wise by its all-electric hypercar, the Evija. However, it won’t share any similarities when it comes to electrification as the Emira, despite popular speculation, will be pure IC – and the last Lotus to be so.
The brand made the announcement that following the production line of the Emira, all new Lotus models will be electric.
To support this, Lotus is creating four architectures that will underpin the eagerly anticipated next generation of Lotus performance cars. These include architectures for sports cars, hypercar, and premium cars, as well as for electric sports cars.
In January this year Lotus and Group Renault’s Alpine brand announced a new partnership. The Lotus Engineering consultancy is leading development work on a new vehicle platform – known internally as E-Sports – and from that will come new products for Lotus and Alpine.
Matt Windle, managing director of Lotus Cars, commented: “The E-Sports architecture will be flexible and modular, and will generate an exciting new sports car for the Lotus brand, with contemporary styling, class-leading ride and handling, explosive performance and that unmistakable Lotus character – a pure dynamic experience that is ‘For The Drivers’. I have challenged our teams to target the same weight as our latest combustion engine sports cars.”
Windle concluded the event by saying: “Our transformation is well underway, and this year it really begins to accelerate through a product-led offensive. Evija goes into production, Emira is launched, and a new suite of four dedicated vehicle architectures is confirmed to further catapult Lotus into new markets, new segments and new volume territory. Lotus has a famous history of fast-paced exploits and successes on the racetracks. In the future, that fast pace of change is translated to the roads and to the global automotive market of tomorrow.”
