New Lotus Type 131 to arrive in 2022 as Elise, Exige and Evora are axed

Lotus bosses have promised that the enterprise intends to “stay true” to its enthusiast base and current selling price positioning – after the British agency introduced that it is axing production of its three present sports cars, the Elise, Exige and Evora, in advance of introducing an all-new model in 2022.

The new car, which is codenamed Variety 131 and previewed by our exclusive pictures, is probably to element V6 hybrid power and will be pitched earlier mentioned the present positioning of the Evora. That could give it a commencing selling price of about £85,000 – pretty much double the figure of the outgoing Elise.

But speaking to Auto Convey, Uday Senapati, Lotus’s Govt Director of Corporate System and Solution Administration, explained that although there is no immediate program to switch the current cars, the enterprise does not envisage any big deviation from its present pricing framework – broadly speaking, among about £60,000 and £100,000.

“I are not able to share with you all what the long term retains but for now, we’ve taken the challenging selection to axe it [the Elise],” Senapati explained. “We’re not about to say we’re likely to deliver it again, either. You hardly ever know, but presently the selection is to end it.

“However, we have experienced a fantastic enthusiast base and consumer base over the 73 years of Lotus heritage we have one hundred,000 cars out there. We’re not likely to ditch those shoppers and those values. We’ll adhere to who we are. The DNA does not go away. And the selling price details will be equivalent, even when we’re speaking about pure-electrical cars. That, you can consider, is a substantial obstacle, but we will be in the selling price details where by folks would like to see us. And increased as very well.”

As disclosed by Auto Convey last 12 months, Variety 131 is probably to be the last Lotus run by a combustion engine. The car will be disclosed this summer months, in advance of prototype production beginning at a new £100m facility in Norfolk, and the first consumers should really take shipping in early 2022.

Senapati declined to divulge the Variety 131’s production name but he gave a robust hint that web speculation declaring it will have the Esprit badge is incorrect. “I’m not declaring this car will not be a legendary car likely forward, but we want to create additional legends, not just recreate the excellent aged times,” he explained. “There’s additional scope for us to do new and even greater factors, I hope.”

He confirmed that the program is nevertheless for the company’s cars to swap to electrical power thereafter, describing the forthcoming new sports car as “the last hurrah for combustion engines, from our side”.

That indicates that the other two vehicles in an formal teaser picture will use the as-nevertheless-unnamed all-electrical platform that will also underpin the future generation of Alpine’s A110 coupé hinted at in Alpine’s very own teaser picture. Senapati explained that the architecture is remaining produced by Lotus itself, and that it will form the foundation for the pure-electric vehicles released over and above the Variety 131.

“The EV sports car is our platform, produced by Lotus Engineering,” Senapati explained. “We were constantly carrying out it for our sports car line-up. Alpine will gain from this we’ll gain from economies of scale. This is not an exclusive partnership with Renault we are open to sharing that platform with other players as very well. But Alpine will be a single of our major companions on it. The partnership is not just a car. It is more substantial than that. Our romantic relationship is particularly excellent it’s produced very well over the previous 12 months, and we have worked on all sorts of suggestions.”

He additional: “The platform will absolutely form the new hub of Lotus. Sweating your assets is a really significant issue in this organization. With sports cars, there are truly two means to do this: you can get additional off the platform, or embrace partnerships to build on the economies. We will keep on to do both equally of those factors.”

Lotus is also heading into this essential advancement period with a new manager. The firm’s managing director Phil Popham is leaving to “pursue personal interests”, and he is remaining replaced by present engineering main, Matt Windle. A changeover approach among the pair is scheduled to be complete by March.

Are you unfortunate to see the demise of the Lotus Elise, Exige and Evora? Permit us know your thoughts in the remarks segment…