Lotus News
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In 2010, Lotus toyed with the idea of a hybrid Evora sports car with the Evora 414E Extended-Range hybrid concept. Today, the car is for sale. Listed on Lotus For Sale and first reported by Motor1, the show car ended in private hands and now seeks a new owner. The current owner doesn't explain how he acquired the car, but it's likely Lotus quietly sold the prototype after testing the car. The powertrain marries a 1.2-liter 3-cylinder gasoline engine to two electric motors. The engine is the range extender, while a battery pack supplies power to the electric motors for 35 miles. After the...
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Lotus and Williams sign partnership deal that could aid hypercar development
Lotus and Williams Advanced Engineering announced they have entered a strategic technical partnership on Monday. The new partnership fits perfectly with Lotus' previous announcement to bring an electric hypercar to market. Autocar first reported Lotus would build a new battery-electric hypercar on...
Sean Szymkowski -
Lotus' Chinese production plans begin to firm
Lotus' new owner, Zhejiang Geely Holding Group, the Chinese company that turned around Volvo and made Polestar a high-end EV brand, has ambitious plans in store for the sports car manufacturer from Hethel. The goal is to transform Lotus into a proper Porsche rival, by launching high-volume models...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran -
Lotus to kick off revival with electric hypercar?
Since Zhejiang Geely Holding Group's acquisition of a controlling stake in Lotus just over a year ago, there's been very little detail in the way of an updated product roadmap for the British performance marque. Before he stepped down in June, former Lotus CEO Jean-Marc Gales talked about two...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran -
Lotus to transform Hethel headquarters, build new customer experience center
The Lotus headquarters will soon undergo a transformation. The company has submitted plans for a new customer experience center, heritage center and museum. Lotus' Friday announcement comes as the company celebrates 70 years since founder Colin Chapman built his first car, and the Hethel, England...
Sean Szymkowski -
Hunt on to find Lotus founder Colin Chapman's first car
Lotus is enlisting the help of enthusiasts, collectors, and any car hunter willing to help find the first car that company founder Colin Chapman built. The car is the Lotus Mark I, which Chapman built from a donor Austin Seven back in 1948, and it hasn't been seen for over 60 years. Chapman built...
Sean Szymkowski -
Former Jaguar-Land Rover executive Phil Popham has joined British sports car maker Lotus. Lotus company announced Thursday that Phil Popham will join the company as Senior Vice President of Commercial Operations for Group Lotus and CEO of Lotus Sports Cars. Popham will report directly to Lotus Group CEO Feng Qingfeng, who took over the top CEO role from Jean-Marc Gales. Gales left his position this past June to take the top position at classic car retailer and restorer JD Classics, which left Qingfeng, a long-time executive at Lotus' new owner, Geely, in the top role. However, Qingfeng is...
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World's best 1977 Lotus Esprit visits Jay Leno's Garage
It's rare to find one-owner classic cars. Time marches on and aging automobiles have to make way for more modern machines. That's the case most of the time, but not so for Detlef Claudius. He's owned his bright yellow Lotus Esprit since he bought it new back in 1977. Detlef owns the car with his...
Jeff Glucker -
Geely could invest almost $2B to turn Lotus into a Porsche rival
China's Zhejiang Geely Holding Group is prepared to invest the necessary funds to make Lotus into a world-beating luxury and sports car brand. If Geely has its way, Lotus will be England's Porsche. And the Chinese automaker could dump as much as $2 billion into the brand to begin the process...
Sean Szymkowski -
Meet the woman who the Lotus Elise is named after
Despite no longer being on sale in the United States, the Lotus Elise has been pivotal in keeping the British sports car marque alive during decades of financial hardship. Development started shortly after Italian entrepreneur Romano Artioli bought Lotus from General Motors in 1993, with the car's...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran -
Jay Leno goes in-depth with a 1966 Lotus Cortina
It's built by Ford, but no one uses that name when referring to the first-generation Lotus Cortina. Between 1963 and 1966, Ford and Lotus cranked out over 3,300 of them, and Jay Leno's chief fabricator Jim Hall owns one of them. He's been restoring the car for years and is finally finished. Hall...
Jeff Glucker -
Lotus Exige Type 49 and 79 celebrate British marque's historic F1 victories
Lotus used this week's Goodwood Festival of Speed in the United Kingdom to unveil two new special versions of its Exige sports car. They were built to mark this year's 70th anniversary of when Lotus founder Colin Chapman built his first race car, based upon his philosophy of “performance...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran -
He was brought in back in 2014 to help bring back Lotus from the brink of bankruptcy and turn it into a viable automaker, but now Jean-Marc Gales has given up his CEO position at the British sports car brand. Gales on Monday revealed via a statement that he has left Lotus for “personal reasons,” though we know he also has a new job lined up at classic car retailer and restorer JD Classics. He hasn't completely cut ties with Lotus, however. He will remain as an adviser to Chairman Daniel Donghui Li. Meanwhile, taking over the reins at Lotus will be Feng Qingfeng. Both Li and...
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Lotus Esprit supercar may get reprise in sports car company's latest plans
Lotus is in the process of developing two new sports cars and an SUV. The sports cars will come first and one of them is tipped to be an Elise replacement. The other, Lotus CEO Jean-Marc Gales revealed to Autocar in an interview published Tuesday, will be a proper supercar along the lines of the...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran -
Geely Group Motorsport partner Cyan Racing switches from Volvo to Lotus cars
Chinese holding company Zhejiang Geely in March established the new division Geely Group Motorsport to oversee motorsport activities for its growing list of brands, which includes the likes of Volvo, Polestar and Lotus. And on Thursday, Geely named Swedish race team Cyan Racing as the official...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran -
Lotus planning more than one SUV
It's a brave new world. As automakers bend to consumers' love of utility vehicles, numerous brands have jumped aboard the SUV bandwagon—even Lotus. We knew the British sports car brand, now owned by China's Geely, had one SUV in the works, but there will be more than one. That's according to...
Sean Szymkowski -
A Chapman is back behind the wheel of a Lotus
Tell us if you've heard this one before: A Chapman behind the wheel of a Lotus. Clive Chapman, son of Lotus founder, Colin Chapman, received his keys to a new Evora GT410 Sport last week. Lotus announced the delivery Friday, as Clive and his Evora GT410 Sport prepared for a trek across the United...
Sean Szymkowski -
Lotus SUV to use Volvo underpinnings?
Lotus earned a new lease on life when China's Zhejiang Geely Holding Group acquired the brand last year. With steady financing, Lotus plans to renew its sports car lineup and introduce its first-ever SUV. But the Geely acquisition brings more than just financing: Lotus now also has access to...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran -
Lotus has revealed a fitting farewell to its track-focused 3-Eleven with one final evolution. The British sports car maker on Tuesday unveiled the 3-Eleven 430, which comes with substantial upgrades in performance including a power bump to 430 horsepower for the stock 3.5-liter supercharged V-6. That's up on the 410 hp of the previous 3-Eleven in road-going trim. However, it's still down on the 460 hp of the track-only 3-Eleven. Although the biggest news is the added power, Lotus did what it always seems to do best: subtract weight. The 3-Eleven 430 weighs just 2,028 pounds thanks to full...
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Lotus planning two new sports car for 2020, then an SUV
In the spring of 2017, 51 percent of Lotus was acquired by Chinese automaker Geely. Since that time, rumblings about some much-needed fresh product have been trickling out of Lotus HQ. Now, according to a report today from Automotive News (subscription required), two new sports cars are being...
Jeff Glucker -
Rezvani Beast Alpha X Blackbird lands with 700 horsepower
California's Rezvani is back with another crazy creation from its Beast line of sports cars. The latest is a 700-horsepower version of the Beast Alpha that appropriately is dubbed the Beast Alpha X Blackbird. The Beast Alpha cars are based on Lotus Elise chassis, instead of Ariel Atom chassis like...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran -
Lotus CEO nabbed for speeding, gets off with driving suspension
Lotus CEO Jean-Marc Gales likely will take it a tad slower on the A11 near his company's Norwich headquarters in England. The executive was caught going 102 mph in a 70 mph zone while driving a new Lotus car. The Telegraph reported on Gales' run-in with the law Monday and said Gales persuaded the...
Sean Szymkowski -
Lotus wants to take on Ferrari with new models
Lotus is best known for its track-focused vehicles as of recent, but one day, the brand's new Chinese owner wants it to rival Ferrari and Porsche. So said the chief of Geely, An Cong Hui, whose company in May took a majority stake in Lotus, along with a major stake in Lotus parent company Proton...
Sean Szymkowski -
Lotus SUV may have been revealed in patent drawings
Insatiable demand for SUVs all over the globe but particularly in key markets such as China and the United States has led to companies even like Lotus, whose reputation is built on lightweight sports cars, joining the trend. (We can also add Ferrari to the list.) Yes, Lotus is developing an SUV for...
Viknesh Vijayenthiran