While a refreshed, more potent Lotus Evora returns to the U.S. late subsequent year, the firm is also planning a crossover variant meant to make the wee British-Malaysian automaker lucrative for the 1st time in practically 2 decades.
Whilst we broke the news back in October that Lotus CEO Jean-Marc Gales was considering sedans and crossovers, we thought he was referring to new models based on more affordable Protons, the Malaysian automaker tied with Lotus under Malaysian conglomerate DRB-Hicom. But in a new interview with Britain’s Vehicle, Gales stated the crossover would be based on the Evora and compete with a production version of the Audi TT Offroad Notion unveiled at Beijing in April. Plus, Gales said there would be a successor to the 2-Eleven, the mad, track-only Elise without having a windshield that blew us away when we tested one in 2007. He also all but confirmed to Car that there would be an Evora roadster, “which is the easiest factor in the planet to do.”
For months, Lotus will have nothing to peddle in the U.S. but the track-only Elise S Cup R and Exige V-6 Cup. The feds told the Evora, the only street-legal Lotus on sale right here, to promptly GTFO subsequent year due to an expiring sensible-airbag waiver. From Gales himself, the next Evora—which will meet all U.S. security regs when it debuts at Geneva subsequent March—will be a refresh and not a top-to-bottom redo. The supercharged Toyota V-6 will breathe through an intercooler for “substantially much more horsepower” and Lotus will reduce and thin out the door sills to make getting into an Evora simpler than, say, a kayak. It will also grow to be even far more pricey.
“Lotus cars will be sharper than ever prior to,” Gales told Vehicle. “We will tip the balance toward handling. The ride will remain excellent, but the handling will be even greater.”
Gales, who took more than in May, mentioned he plans to make Lotus profitable by 2016 (the first such occasion in 17 years, he stated) and could break even with 3000 vehicles per year, much more than double the 1263 vehicles sold in 2013. In between 2017 and 2020, when a Lotus sedan may well launch, Gales desires Lotus to strategy 10,000 vehicles. This is all pleasant to hear, but we’re so utilised to Lotus emitting vapor of late—absolutely nothing promised below CEO Dany Bahar’s bizarre 3-year stint hit the pavement—that we remain skeptical. Lotus is in the procedure of firing a couple hundred employees, and until that dust settles, a lifted, mid-engine Lotus 4×4 will not drive off a PowerPoint slide.
Lotus Confirms Evora-Based Crossover (!) and Roadster
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