New Lotus sports car teased; set to replace the Elise, Evora and Exige

There has been a lot going on lately with Lotus. It was rumoured that Elise, Evora, and Exige were in their final year of production, and that seems to be true now. With the phase-out of the three old cars, the brand is set to release a completely new sports car.

Now, there is not a lot to tell about the new sports car coming from Lotus’ design department. Based on the teaser image, there could be three different iterations of the sports car in a series, rather than a single model. The image shows three cars under covers, all of which have different headlamps (LED DRLs). Moreover, even the front bumper appears to be different.

Based on what Autocar reports, the new series of sports cars are said to be positioned above the Evora. Moreover, it is also expected to get a V6 motor on a hybrid system that is being developed indigenously. The combined power output is expected to breach the 500 hp mark. This brings us to the fact that it is not clear yet whether the car will use the Toyota engine that Lotus has been using for years now.

Known as the Type 131 internally, this upcoming sports car is a part of Lotus’s Vision80 strategy. The production is expected to begin later this year, though we are not clear whether the deliveries will commence by the end of the year or not. Whatever be it, the new model has a lot of expectations to fulfill as the outgoing Elise, Evora, and Exige garnered a lot of praises from sports car enthusiasts.

Interestingly, the Lotus Vision80 strategy saw an investment of around £100 million (SGD 182,124,000) for the Hethel production facility. The Geely-owned British company will also hire 250 new employees, which does not include the 670 employees that have already joined the automaker since September 2017 when Lotus shifted its ownership.

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