It’s a big day for Lotus. Along with a sneak peak at the company’s newest car, the Emira, a whole host of announcements were made via a digital conference.
Lotus is working along its “Vision80” plan which sets out its vision for the future. Launched in 2018 not long after its 70th anniversary, it aims to transform the business, revamp the range of products and produce results annually. Lotus hopes to have reached these aims by its 80th anniversary, hence “Vision80”.
Despite a worldwide pandemic that has wrought huge levels of economic devastation, Lotus is still going strong. Now four years into the Vision80 plan, everything is on-track.
The Managing Director of Lotus Cars, Matt Windle, had the following to say:
Our ongoing Vision80 plan to transform Lotus is on track. This year is a pivotal one for Lotus, particularly with our sports cars we reach the end of one era and begin another. The spirit and passion that gave the world the Elise, Exige and Evora will live on in the next generation of cars – cars like the all-new Lotus Emira.
The Lotus Emira
Until today, we only knew of the Emira as Type 131 – its codename.
“Emira” is a word found in many ancient languages and often translates to “leader” or “commander” – an appropriate name, as the car marks a key point in the company’s drive towards change.
It marks the last internal combustion engine car that Lotus will release. That really is a milestone. Although there was a lot of talk around the car being a hybrid, it will feature just an ICE.
The design is based on the Evija, hints of which you can see in the teaser images.
Lotus is keeping coy around most of the details, for now.
We can expect more details when the Emira is released in full on Tuesday 6 July at the Lotus Advanced Performance Centre. It’ll make its dynamic debut to the public somewhere between the 8th and 11th of July at the Goodwood Festival of Speed.
What Else Was Announced?
Lotus has also announced four new architectures for all its future cars, including the Emira.
- Sports car – Lotus is built around sports cars, but this new architecture will be completely different to anything it’s done before. Internally, the sports car architecture is known as the Elemental. The Emira will be based on it.
- Hypercar – the Evija will be built on the hypercar architecture, known as Extreme behind Lotus’ doors.
- Premium – Lotus hope to capitalize on entering the market with more luxurious vehicles, and the Evolution platform will allow them to do this.
- Electric sports car – Lotus and Alpine are currently working in partnership, and from this we’ll get the E-Sports range.
Although we don’t know too much about the E-Sports platform yet, Matt Windle said:
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.
Overall, Lotus appears confident about its future. As it should be, by the looks of things.
