I, like many enthusiasts, had given up on Lotus. Once a bastion for car people looking for no-compromise driving machines that put feel and excitement above all else, the company now sells just one actual internal-combustion sports car, the Emira. Its other normal production cars, the Eletre crossover and the Emeya sedan, are heavy EVs and hybrids that don’t exactly match up with the “simplify and add lightness” ethos.
The only other sports car Lotus builds, the Evija, is a multi-million dollar, all-electric supercar that, despite entering production three years ago and being limited to 130 units, still isn’t sold out. Its next car, internally named the Type 135, was supposed to be a cheaper EV meant to be sold alongside the Emira.
Seeing the lack of popularity for electric cars (and specifically, electric sports cars), Lotus has decided to pivot back to gas power for its next sports car. The company just unveiled its “Focus 2030” business strategy for the rest of the decade, and it includes shoehorning a V8 hybrid powertrain into the Type 135. That’s more like it, Lotus.
The Lotus I Know And Love
Recognizing that EV powertrain adoption isn’t happening as quickly as expected in some regions of the world, Lotus says it’s shifted its approach, and now expects its products to be 60% hybrid and 40% fully electric, with an eventual “customer-led” transition to full electrification, whenever that may be.
The company has already started to pivot. Back in 2024, it introduced an “X-Hybrid” powertrain into the Eletre that pairs a 2.0-liter turbocharged inline-four to a 70-kWh battery and two electric motors, for a total output of 939 horsepower, and a range of 683 miles.
Now, it’s introducing a different hybrid setup to the Type 135. That car, long-rumored to be a full EV, will now get a hybrid powertrain with a V8 making “over 1,000 PS” (over 986 horsepower) combined. Aside from confirming it’ll be built in Europe and arrive in 2028, there aren’t any other details just yet. But Lotus says it’ll release more info later this year.
While a heavy hybrid powertrain isn’t exactly the lightest solution to making a sports car quicker, I’m not mad. Previously, I assumed Lotus would churn out more EVs and eventually retire the Emira altogether before the end of the decade, leaving it as a brand that had fully given up on its identity. But it sounds like Geely, Lotus’s Chinese parent company, is investing time and money into making sure the British-based sports car maker isn’t left in the dust.
There’s Emira News, Too
Lotus isn’t going to let the Emira languish through the end of the decade, thankfully. The company is planning to give the mid-engine sports car a serious-sounding refresh. From the release:
Emira continuity is confirmed, reflecting both Lotus’ commitment to manufacturing in the UK and sustained consumer demand for its combustion-engine sportscars. The company will unveil an update in the coming weeks, designed to be the most powerful and lightest Emira built.
So long as it keeps the manual transmission, I’ll be happy.
The Businessy Stuff
Lotus sold just 6,520 cars last year, a near 50% drop from 2024. The company’s pivot to hybrid power is part of its strategy to eventually reach 30,000 units annually and achieve “sustained profitability,” according to its Focus 2030 strategy.
To that end, Lotus has identified where in the world it thinks it can achieve the most growth: China. The company says this market is where it can “leverage strong demand for premium new energy vehicles (NEV).” Europe, meanwhile, will be its second-most important battleground, where it intends to lean on its heritage to drive sales of its hybrid and gas-powered cars.
What about North America? Well, our tariffs mean that importing cars like the Eletre and Emeya, which are built in China, are a non-starter. So Lotus plans on focusing on sports car sales. That means more of the Emira and, hopefully, the Type 135. Seeing as how people know Lotus has a sports car brand, I’m totally okay with that.
Top graphic image: Lotus
I wonder, why bother making it a hybrid at all? Just build internal combustion cars with manual transmissions – the few people who would even consider a lotus WILL buy them. I don’t think anyone buying these cars is hellbent on high fuel mileage…
A V8 is not simple, or light. Buying whatever Toyota’s current 4-cyl, and then turning up the wick, is the proper Lotus way to do it.
Counterpoint: A LS3 V8 weighs a hair over 400 lbs, about the same as a I4 MZR engine (as a generic all aluminum stand in for a Toyota product) at less than half the displacement and power. The LS is also quite compact thanks to its mechanically simple OHV design. I4s often require blowers to make big power adding to the weight and complexity.
Emira, Emeya, Evija, Eletre… FFS these names are so laughably bad.
The Lotus Ay Caramba
I’ve been dreaming of an Esprit ever since I watched that James Bond movie in the 80s, but no later than yesterday I laughed my butt off watching some old FifthGear video on YouTube from the Tiff Needell times, about their quest to build a “cheap” 200mph car from a used Lotus Esprit.
Sprinkle some early I Do Cars vids about his personal Esprit, and I’ll confirm I’m still not ready for one.
Someone mentioned the GR Yaris drivetrain. I think what Lotus could do is build off the Emira but use a Prius drivetrain (or something similar). Program it so the electric is used to fill in low end performance then move over to the ICE. The issue I see with Lotus is their ethos of light weight has been killed by the EU legislating a literal ton of safety systems into vehicles.
If they build something light weight it will be so slow that everybody will lose their minds. The expectations today are so based on stats that it is difficult to make something that is engaging because people who want a fun car want it to be fast. The increased speed then makes safety more important. It is a dangerous loop that just keeps getting worse.
In the past month I have driven my 1985 Fiero at 120% of its abilities and a 918 Spyder at 70% of its abilities. The Fiero was way more fun, but most people would not be seen dead in a Fiero.
Unfortunately these days superminis have 300bhp and hot hatches 400bhp.
So a 150bhp premium sportscar won’t do.
I agree but I don’t think it’s unfortunate.
If they could combine a hybrid to fill in the low end and have the engine tuned for the top end, I think 250-275BHP could be very fun.
My Fiero is K swapped and probably makes 180BHP, but it is stripped out and doesn’t weigh very much. With modern required safety junk I think 250 would be the bottom end of acceptable.
Cool, another Esprit replacement. I worked on like four of those.
If it’s on sale in two years then I must have been working on it before they made me redundant last year.
That’s as far as I’m willing to push my confidentiality clause for today.
Can we just go back to making Toyota powered race cars for the street. If we got a $35k Elan with a cheap Toyota 3 or 4 banger I’d be fully back in on Lotus. Halo cars are cool and all, but I’ll never see, let alone drive one.
If Toyota can get 280HP out of a 3-cylinder in the GR Yaris, Lotus can probably make 500+HP out of whatever Toyota’s current 4-cyl is, at half the weight of a V8.
That’s all I can think about. Alpine showed what can be done in the modern era. After that thing came to be I was certain it was only a matter of time before we saw some sort of Elise-like thing infesting auto-X and HPDE across the Land of the Free. Alas.
I could not possibly care less about yet another Billionaire’s Codpiece of a “super car” with 3-4X as much horsepower as I have any interest in. They certainly will not be “adding lightness” to this thing.
This butters not my parsnip. The issue with Lotus’ bigger offerings is that they’re heavy and complex, not that they’re electric. Taking the “cheaper EV meant to be sold alongside the Emira” and adding weight and complexity in the form of a V8 is tragically off the mark.
This announcement is, to me, akin to Taylor Swift circa 2015 responding to the allegations that she’s leaning more pop than country by saying “don’t worry, I’m working on a new EDM album that’ll set everything straight!”
What is this act you speak of, that they supposedly got together?
Lotus made no nonsense sports and racecars that were simple and light. And even relatively affordable. Not any of those hallmarks are in the current act.
Their act could be a street legal, relatively affordable, very nice to drive sporty or even racy EV. That would be interesting.
Take a 200 hp; 40 kWh Lotus Elan for example.
What annoys me here is thanks to AI, when I saw a top shot featuring a dramatic rear view with large exhausts and fat tires, I immediately thought “fake.”
Hoorayyyy, rich people! May this newest purchase provide the happiness you are all so desperately searching for…
We definitely need more hybrid supercars for the 1% to get into dick measuring contests with….there definitely aren’t already 8,000 completely indistinguishable ones on the market already!
Ah the Dany Bahar dream returns to Lotus
This is nothing like insane enough for the Bahar era. I was there for that.
Wild Christmas party that year.
Well a V8 powered supersports car was one of his dreams
Those concepts looked good and still do!
In the 1950s, Lotus made lightweight, no-nonsense racing machines that could be driven in the street, and which were attainable(even if only barely) by ordinary working people.
They need to go back to that. Nothing in their current lineup matches that description. It doesn’t matter whether it’s an EV, a V8, a 4-cylinder, whatever, it’s the platform that mostly determines what kind of car it is and whether it follows Colin Chapman’s ethos of “simplify, and add lightness”.
None of the platforms Lotus has been making after the Elise/Exige are simple or light. They have lost their way, and another 3,500+ lb $250,000+ supercar with heated/cooled-leather massage seats, infotainment, 200+ lbs of sound deadening, and all of this other extraneous crap is never going to bring them back to their roots nor distinguish themselves from any of the other automakers with a unique value proposition.
You know what will? A modern take on the Lotus 11. Regardless of whether EV or ICE, the curb weight in lbs should have a 2 or even a 1 in front of it. It should be tiny, narrow, low, and aerodynamically streamlined.
Hear, hear!
I like it. How about a modern take on the Elite (Type 14)? Go full composite monocoque again with the latest technologies for the most stressed locations. Make it a super aerodynamic shape then fit it with a compact hybrid system (something like a tiny 3 or 4 cylinder with a lightweight solid state battery). Try to make the lightest hybrid possible.
It’s an interesting idea and the 4C was proof you could do it. In fact, it would have been fun to see a 4C with a Tonale drivetrain. The hard part is that carbon tub–even today they can cost more than $30K by themselves.
The Type 14 was a fiberglass tub which was not a thing that caught on.
The Miata proves you can do it without a carbon tub if you really want to keep costs down and make the car affordable.
Of course, a smaller car with a carbon tub that uses less carbon than the 4C could also keep costs down. The question is how small can you actually go with a sports car shape while seating two people, and still pass regulations? No one has actually explored that in a mass produced car as of late. I suspect it might be closer to a Renault Twizzy in size than a Mazda Miata, and a car of that size in the form of an aerodynamically streamlined long-tailed sports car coupe would be AWESOME.
Imagine getting liter-bike performance with a high-revving liter-bike engine, but with 4 wheels, a 6-speed manual transmission, the ability to corner with close to 1.2Gs lateral acceleration while still wearing skinny low rolling resistance tires(without any wings, scoops, lips, or spoilers given this is a streamlined, curvaceous car, maybe just ground effects underneath the car for bare minimum downforce to keep it planted at top speed and no more), and you get 60+ mpg on the highway.
Then make an EV version that weighs under 2,000 lbs with a 25-30 kWh battery pack, single speed with no transmission, and still gets 200+ miles range on the highway.
Use the same platform to build a subcompact 4-seater hatchback, a mini pickup truck, a micro delivery van, and a two-seat AWD SUV mostly sharing the same parts but with perhaps small 660cc gasoline or diesel engine options, and you’d be able to expand the appeal to hundreds of thousands of people and make all of them affordable thanks to volume production reducing per-unit costs.
Honda S660 much? 🙂
That, but for the sports car, instead of looking aggressive/angular to conform to some stupid styling fad, it’s curvaceous and aerodynamically streamlined like an old 50s/60s race car with half the CdA of the S660, about 3x as much power shoved in it vs the S660, and similar mass to the S660.
It would have zero competition on the market, and be liable to take away sales from supercars/hypercars at < 1/10th the cost.
The base 658cc engine of the S660 would be an excellent engine for the entry level models of the non-sports car vehicles.
I was seriously considering an Elise a few years ago. Someone from GRM forum that lived near me let me drive his to see if it was worth the effort to find one.
I decided against it. Pedals were too close to each other for my comfort. Getting in and out was too much gymnastics for this 50something (can’t use the windshield pillar, not weight bearing).
But damn was it fun to drive. Lightweight, responsive, I almost overlooked everything else but decided to be an adult.
An Elise that is sized for modern humans would be a hell of a car. And add what, MAYBE 50-100lbs to the weight? It would be mostly adding air. And massively increase the audience of the car. I don’t need luxury, but I do need to be able to not be in pain while crammed into the thing.
As I found out with my Fiata – it doesn’t matter how brilliant the car is if it is actually painful to drive for any length of time. I thought I could overlook the ergonomic challenges – I was wrong. You made the correct decision. Thankfully, I bought it super right so I didn’t lose much when I sold it.
A serious case of sunk cost fallacy on Geely’s part. Sell the brand or give it someone who actually cares before all that remains of brand cachet has been lost or destroyed.
A 1,000bhp heavy hybrid supercar isn’t very Lotus…
Lotus has never and presumably can never succeed by doing what everyone else is doing, because they can’t do it better.
Hybrid sports cars are everywhere, and big players are building them.
Something that no one is building is a modern Elise. Perhaps that would be something that Lotus should consider when making product plans.
I’d take a modern Esprit.
I’m not holding my breath.
Isn’t it what this is supposed to be.
On the other hand they could cram a Yaris Hybrid drivetrain into an Elise-like car. That could be an interesting new age sportscar.
There’s significant bet hedging going on. All the automakers who went all-in on electric got badly burnt, and don’t want to go all in on ICE again when there’s a fairly decent chance that a Democrat might get in the White House in a few years and flip everything on its head again. Developing a new platform for a car that might only have a few years of life in it would be a bad move for Lotus.
I’m sympathetic to that idea for a new 7 liter gas guzzler or something, but if there’s no place in that theoretical world for a 50+ mpg pure ICE lightweight sports car then what are we even doing here?
Pure ICE sportscars don’t do +50mpg.
My A110 GT, which has most of the ingredients for good fuel economy (low weight, small 4 cylinder engine, good CdA and 7 speed gearbox) got 33mpg at its best. And that is strictly complying with speed limits and with a gentle foot.
My average in all conditions, including spirited driving, was 28mpg.
The old Elise got over 40 mpg 15 years ago:
https://www.motorauthority.com/news/1044137_2011-lotus-elise-scores-46-6-mpg-cleanest-sports-car-in-class
I don’t think 50 is a stretch with modern technology and design. Even if it only matches the old car, the primary point is that expecting something with that kind of efficiency and small size to fall victim to fuel economy standards means that the standards themselves are clearly wrong-headed.
My car was rated at 35mpg on the WLTP cycle. I guess that in perfect conditions that might be achievable (steady cruise at 55mph).
The Lotus is of course lighter and normally aspirated / lower power. So might just work.
The 46-mpg figure the Elise achieved was with a Series 2 base model with Toyota’s 136-hp 1.6 on the old WLTP cycle which is far more generous than the EPA testing. Very impressive, still, but a 2ZZ-engined Elise is absolutely not doing that. And if you are getting 40 mpg in an Elise you are probably missing the point of it.
50+ mpg from a sports car is definitely doable: a Toyota Prius drivetrain in a roadster. I’m not sure how else you do it. The Mazda Miata is about as light as you get for a mass-market sports car and that gets 34 highway.
https://www.thelotusforums.com/latest-news/lotus-cars-news/new-lotus-elise-model-year-2011/
Here’s a copy of the press release. The numbers don’t add up, as 6.14 l/100km is 38 UK MPG, not 46. Besides, UK gallons are 5/4ths of a US one, so 38 UK MPG that calculates out at 30 US MPG or so.
the CO2 figure that is in the Motor Authority link looks shady too – there’s simple conversion factor between CO2 and MPG as I understand it, and that’s 1 mpg = 6553.55772216 g/km CO2. The Prius numbers look right, but I think the correct figure for 46mpg is more like 139 g/km rather than 239.
The Miata makes compromises for its cheap price point and relative comfort that a more expensive and less livable Lotus wouldn’t need to.
Additionally, everyone quibbling with “50 mpg” is missing the larger point that no matter what the actual efficiency was, a car engineered for maximum weight savings with a small engine should be the last target of fuel economy regs. Fine, assume I said “40 mpg”, but the point is unchanged.
So a modern Fiero. 🙂
It’s a good point, for sure. Sadly, anything with four wheels is targetted pretty heavily for everything: safety, economy, emissions.
The best alternative today seems to be any of a number of quite expensive kit cars or a 3-wheeler like a Morgan. And that door could soon shut as well.