Yellowwheels

Lotus stun the world with ambitious model launch program: Lotus Elise Concept

If the Paris Motor Show threw up a couple of headline grabbing supercars you’d be happy, curious and envious. Jaguar delivered with their amazing C-X75 electric/turbine hybrid and Lamborghini with their carbon-with-everything Sesto Elemento concept. You’d be stunned if any manufacturer launched two concepts. But five? That’s what Lotus did and blew the press’s mind in the process. Much has been written about the feasibility of this production plan and we don’t have a view other than it seems over-ambitious. The bucket principle says that if you work in a company and ask for ten buckets of whatever to match your needs you’ll get five delivered. Is this the case with Lotus? If we get to see even three of these in the real world within the proposed time schedule we’ll be amazed and happy. All five and we’ll be stunned and elated!

Don’t forget though, that the first model to go on sale is the Elan a whole 3 years away, so there is plenty of time for the designs to evolve or change substantially. Also the show cars may have been part of a giant focus group rather than a fixed agenda.

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Schedule:
Elan 4.0 litre V6 – summer 2013
Elite 5.0 litre V8 – spring 2014
Elise 2.0 litre straight 4 – spring 2014
Esprit 5.0 litre V8 – spring 2015
Eterne 5.0 litre V8 – spring 2015

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From Lotus
The Grown Up

Oh yes, here it is! There’s still room for the Elise at Lotus but what a difference a decade or two makes. The Elise due for release in 2015 is a sexy, agile beast of a car. Finally the Elise comes of age. Aesthetically it’s definitely pleasing to the eye, it’s bold directional body gives you subtle hints of the Elise of old so it still seems a touch familiar but at the same time, it couldn’t be more different. Perhaps a small example of how the car has changed would help. Aside from strong graphic styling, the practicality of the car has had a major overhaul too with sizeable improvements made to the ingress and egress – in simple terms, no more acrobatics but still all the fun you expect from the Elise.

Dany Bahar, Chief Executive Officer of Group Lotus, said: “We worked very hard on getting the Elise 2015 exactly right, it’s our entry level car so it needs to give a proper introduction to the Lotus driving experience.” “The Elise you can buy now is still a fantastic car, make no mistake, Lotus remain very proud of it, but this is a natural progression for us moving forward. The Elise 2015 will also be class-leading in terms of performance and efficiency but it will do more than that it will take the Elise model to the forefront of its class across the board.” “The design of the Elise 2015 is perfect for the target market, it’s young, strong, confident, verging on ruthless, it mirrors the engineering and technology. It’s the next generation Elise for a new generation of Lotus drivers.” Fear not though, despite the dramatic upgrades the Elise 2015 has lost none of the cheeky charm that made the two-seater sports car famous, it still retains performance through lightweight and handles like a dream – albeit a quite aggressive and tension filled dream. With a 2.0 litre inline 4 pressure charged engine delivering up to 320 PS, the Elise 2015 should reach 0-100kph in under 4.5 seconds.

The Elise 2015, proving great things come to those who wait.

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Elise 2015 Specification

Layout: — 2 seater, mid-engined, rear wheel drive
Engine: — Petrol with start/stop option
Hybrid technology: — Mild hybrid, i.e. start/stop technology
Cylinder: — 4
Capacity: — 2.0 litre
Power/Torque: — 320 PS / 330 Nm
Rev limit: —- 7,800 rpm
0-100 km/h: — 4.3 seconds
Top speed: — 270 km/h
CO2 approx (CO2/km): — 150 g/km**
Weight: — 1,095 kg
Seats: — 2
Transmission: — 6 Speed Manual, DCT optional
Drive: — RWD
Start of production: — Early 2015
Enters the market: — Spring 2015
Price indication: — Circa £35,000

** With new technology

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