Lotus Group (also known as Lotus Cars, and doing business as Lotus NYO in China[3]) is a British multinational automotive manufacturer of luxury sports cars and electric vehicles.
Lotus Group is composed of three primary entities. Lotus Cars, a high-performance sports car company, is based in
Hethel,
Norfolk. Lotus Tech, an all-electric lifestyle vehicle company, headquartered in
Wuhan, China, and operates regional facilities in the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Germany.[4] Additionally, Lotus Engineering, an engineering consultancy firm, is headquartered at the Lotus Advanced Technology Centre (LATC) located at the
University of Warwick'sWellesbourne Campus.[5]
Lotus was founded and owned for many years by
Colin Chapman. After his death and a period of financial instability, it was bought by
General Motors, then
Romano Artioli, and then
DRB-HICOM through its subsidiary
Proton, who owned Lotus from 1996 to 2017. Lotus is currently majority owned by Chinese multinational
Geely.[6]
Lotus was previously involved in
Formula One racing, via
Team Lotus, winning the Formula One World Championship seven times. Notable Lotus cars include the
Lotus Seven, the
Elan, the
Esprit, and the
Elise.
History
Early years
The company was formed in 1952 as Lotus Engineering Ltd. by engineers
Colin Chapman and Colin Dare, both graduates of
University College, London, but had earlier origins in 1948 when Chapman built his first racing car in a garage.[7] The four letters in the middle of the logo stand for the initials of company founder, Anthony Colin Bruce Chapman. When the logo was created, Colin Chapman's original partners Michael and Nigel Allen were led to believe that the letters stood for Colin Chapman and the Allen Brothers.[citation needed][clarification needed]
The first factory was situated in old stables behind the Railway Hotel in
Hornsey, North London.
Team Lotus, which was split off from Lotus Engineering in 1954, was active and competitive in
Formula One racing from 1958 to 1994. The Lotus Group of Companies was formed in 1959. This was made up of Lotus Cars Limited and Lotus Components Limited, which focused on road cars and customer competition car production, respectively. Lotus Components Limited became Lotus Racing Limited in 1971 but the newly renamed entity ceased operation in the same year.[8]
The company moved to a purpose-built factory at
Cheshunt in 1959[9] and since 1966 the company has occupied a modern factory and road test facility at
Hethel, near
Wymondham in
Norfolk. The site is a former
World War II airfield,
RAF Hethel, and the test track uses sections of the old runway.
In its early days, Lotus sold cars aimed at privateer racers and trialists. Its early road cars could be bought as kits, in order to save on
purchase tax. The kit car era ended in the late 1960s and early 1970s, the
Lotus Elan Plus Two being the first Lotus road car not to be offered in kit form, and the
Lotus Eclat and
Lotus Elite of the mid-1970s being offered only in factory built versions.
After the
Lotus Elite of the 1950s, which featured a complete fibreglass monocoque fitted with built-in steel pickup points for mounting major components, Lotus found critical and sales success in the 1960s with the
Lotus Elan. This two-seater was later developed to two-plus-two form (Elan +2S). Lotus was notable for its use of fibreglass bodies, backbone chassis, and overhead camshaft engines – initially supplied by
Coventry Climax but later replaced by Lotus-Ford units (
Ford block, Lotus head and twin cam valve gear). Lotus also worked with Ford on the
Lotus Cortina, a successful sports saloon.
Another Lotus of the late 1960s and early 1970s was the two seater
Lotus Europa, initially intended only for the European market, which paired a backbone chassis and lightweight body with a mid mounted Renault engine, later upgraded to the Lotus-Ford twin cam unit as used in the Elan.
The
Lotus Seven, originating in the 1950s as a simple, lightweight open two seater continued in production into the early 70s. Lotus then sold the rights to produce the Seven to
Caterham, which has continued to produce the car since then.
By the mid-1970s, Lotus sought to move upmarket with the launch of the Elite and Eclat models, four seaters aimed at prosperous buyers, with features such as optional air conditioning and optional automatic transmissions. The mid engined line continued with the
Lotus Esprit, which was to prove one of the company's longest lived and most iconic models. Lotus developed its own series of four cylinder
DOHC engines, the
Lotus 900 series, and later a
V8, and
turbocharged versions of the engines appeared in the Esprit.
Variants of the 900 series engine were supplied for the
Jensen Healeysports car and the Sunbeam Lotus "hot hatchback". In the 1980s, Lotus collaborated with
Vauxhall Motors to produce the
Lotus Carlton, the fastest roadgoing Vauxhall car.
Financial troubles, death of Chapman
By 1980, Group Lotus was in serious financial trouble. Production had dropped from 1,200 units per year to a mere 383. The combined reasons were that the world was in the middle of an economic
recession and sales in the key United States market had virtually collapsed, along with limited development of the then model range.[10]
In early 1982, Chapman came to an agreement with
Toyota to exchange intellectual property and applied expertise. This initially resulted in Lotus Engineering helping to develop the Mk2
Toyota Supra, also known as the
Toyota Celica XX. Secondly, it allowed Lotus to launch the new
Lotus Excel to replace the ageing
Lotus Eclat. Using drivetrain and other components from Toyota enabled Lotus to sell the Excel for £1,109 less than the outgoing Eclat.[10]
Looking to re-enter the North American market, Chapman was approached by young law professor and investment banking consultant, Joe Bianco, who proposed a new and separate United States sales company for Lotus.[11] By creating an unprecedented tax-incentived mechanism wherein each investor received a specially personalised Lotus Turbo Esprit, the new American company, Lotus Performance Cars Inc. (LPCI), was able to provide fresh capital to the Group Lotus in the United Kingdom. Former
Ferrari North America general manager John Spiech was brought in to run LPCI, which imported the remarkable
Giugiaro-designed Turbo Esprit for the first time. US sales began to quickly jump into triple digits annually.[12]
Chapman died of a heart attack on 16 December 1982 at the age of 54, having begun life as an innkeeper's son and ended a multi-millionaire industrialist in post-war Britain. At the time of his death, the car maker had built thousands of successful racing and road cars and won the
Formula OneWorld Championship seven times.
At the time of his death, both Chapman and Lotus were linked with the
DeLorean Motor Company scandal over the use of
UK Government subsidies for the production of the
DMC DeLorean, for which Lotus had designed the chassis. Chasing large sums of money which had disappeared from the DeLorean company, Lotus was besieged by
Inland Revenue inspectors, who imposed an £84 million legal "protective assessment" on the company.[13] Chapman died before the full deceit unravelled but, at the subsequent trial of Fred Bushell, the Lotus accountant, the judge insisted that had Chapman himself been in the dock, he would have received a sentence "of at least 10 years".[14]
With Group Lotus near bankruptcy in 1983,
David Wickins, the founder of
British Car Auctions, agreed to become the new company chairman, through an introduction from his friend
Mark Thatcher.[13] Taking a combined 29% BCA/personal stake in Group Lotus,[15] Wickins negotiated with the Inland Revenue, and then brought in new investors:
merchant bankSchroeder-Wagg (14%);[15]Michael Ashcroft's
Bermudian operating company Benor (14%);[16]Sir Anthony Bamford of
JCB (12%).[15] Wickins oversaw a complete turnaround in the company's fortunes, which resulted in him being called "The saviour of Lotus".[13][17]
International ownership
Despite having employed designer
Peter Stevens to revamp the range and design two new concept cars,[18] by 1985 the British investors recognised that they lacked the required capital to invest in the required new model development to production, and sought to find a major motor manufacturing buyer.[15] In January 1986, Wickins oversaw the majority sale of the Group Lotus companies and 100% of North American–based LPCI to
General Motors, with engineer
Bob Eaton a big Lotus car fan.[15] After four months' control of Group Lotus by the co-owners GM and Toyota, the latter sold GM its stake. By October 1986, GM had acquired a 91% stake in Group Lotus for £22.7 million, which allowed GM to legally force the company buyout.[15]
On 27 August 1993, GM sold the company, for £30 million, to A.C.B.N. Holdings S.A. of
Luxembourg, a company controlled by Italian businessman
Romano Artioli, who also owned
Bugatti Automobili SpA. In 1996, a majority share in Lotus was sold to
Proton, a Malaysian car company listed on the
Kuala Lumpur Stock Exchange.
Lotus Cars were awarded the
Queen's Award for Enterprise for contribution to International Trade, one of 85 companies receiving the recognition in that category in 2002. Lotus cars wore the badge of the award for a number of years.[19]
In January 2021 Lotus' parent company Geely announced a joint venture with
Renault–Nissan–Mitsubishi Alliance and their
Alpine division to develop a range of electric performance cars sharing some of their future platforms.[23] In April 2021 Lotus announced plans to produce only electric cars by 2028 and increase production numbers from around 1,500 per annum to tens of thousands. Geely and Etika Automotive provided two billion pounds (US$2.8 billion) to fund the changes.[24]
Lotus Technology, the electric vehicle division of Lotus which has a different ownership structure (30% by Etika and the rest by Geely and Nio Capital) was listed on NASDAQ through a SPAC acquisition. After the listing, 10.3% of shares will be held by the public.[25]
Operations
Currently organised as Group Lotus Limited, the business is divided into Lotus Cars and Lotus Engineering.
As well as sports car manufacture, the company also acts as an engineering consultancy, providing engineering development—particularly of
suspensions- for other car manufacturers. Lotus's powertrain department is responsible for the design and development of the 4-cylinder
Ecotec engine found in many of GM's
Vauxhall,
Opel,
Saab,
Chevrolet and
Saturn cars. The US
Lotus Elise and
Exige models used the
1.8L VVTL-i I4 from Toyota's late
Celica GT-S and the
Matrix XRS both of which are no longer available new. The new Exige has the same V6 engine as its bigger counterpart the
Evora and is not available in the US as a road-legal vehicle.
Michael Kimberley, who had been a guiding figure at Lotus in the 1970s, returned and took over as the Acting chief executive officer of the Company and its Group from May 2006. He chaired the executive committee of Lotus Group International Limited ("LGIL") established in February 2006, with Syed Zainal Abidin (managing director of Proton Holdings Berhad) and Badrul Feisal (non-executive director of Proton Holdings Berhad). LGIL is the holding company of Lotus Group Plc.
Kimberley retired as CEO on 17 July 2009,[26] replaced on 1 October 2009 by the former Senior Vice-president for Commercial & Brand at
Ferrari,
Dany Bahar. Bahar intended to drive the brand up-market into the expanding global luxury goods sector, effectively away from the company's traditional light weight simplicity and pure driving experience focus.
Bahar was suspended as CEO on 25 May 2012 on a temporary basis, while an investigation into his conduct was undertaken.[27] Lotus announced on 7 June 2012 the termination of Bahar's employment and the appointment of Aslam Farikullah as the new chief operating officer.[28] The ambitious plans for several new models were cancelled following Bahar's departure. Jean Marc Gales replaced Bahar as the CEO of the company in 2014 and enabled the company to make a profit after decades in 2017, due to his effective market plans and strategies before he left the company in June 2018 for personal reasons, and was replaced by Feng Qingfeng from Lotus Group's parent company,
Geely.
October 2018 saw further senior personnel changes as Phil Popham was named CEO of Lotus Cars, with Feng Qingfeng remaining in charge of Group Lotus.[29]
In January 2021 Matt Windle was appointed managing director of Lotus Cars after Phil Popham stepped down.[30][31]
In its early days, the company encouraged its customers to race its cars, and it first entered
Formula One through its sister company
Team Lotus in 1958. A Lotus Formula One car driven by
Stirling Moss won the marque's first Grand Prix in 1960 at
Monaco. Moss drove a
Lotus 18 entered by privateer
Rob Walker. Major success came in 1963 with the
Lotus 25, which – with
Jim Clark driving – won Team Lotus its first F1
World Constructors' Championship. Clark's untimely death – he crashed a
Formula TwoLotus 48 in April 1968 after his rear tyre failed in a turn in Hockenheim – was a severe blow to the team and to Formula One. He was the dominant driver in the dominant car and remains an inseparable part of Lotus's early years. That year's championship was won by Clark's teammate,
Graham Hill.
Team Lotus is credited with making the mid-engined layout popular for
IndyCars, developing the first
monocoque Formula One chassis, and integrating the engine and transaxle as chassis components. Team Lotus was among the pioneers in Formula One in adding wings and shaping the undersurface of the car to create
downforce. It invented active suspension and was the first to move radiators to the sides of the car to improve aerodynamic performance.
Formula One
Drivers' Championship winner for Lotus were
Jim Clark in 1963 and 1965,
Graham Hill in 1968,
Jochen Rindt in 1970,
Emerson Fittipaldi in 1972 and
Mario Andretti in 1978. In 1973 Lotus won the constructors' championship only; the drivers' title went to
Jackie Stewart of
Tyrrell. Chapman saw Lotus beat Ferrari as the first marque to achieve 50 Grand Prix victories, despite Ferrari having won their first nine years sooner.
Even after Chapman's death, until the late 1980s, Team Lotus continued to be a major player in Formula One.
Ayrton Senna drove for the team from 1985 to 1987, winning twice in each year and achieving 17 pole positions.
Team Lotus established Classic Team Lotus in 1992, as the Works historic motorsport activity. Classic Team Lotus continues to maintain Lotus F1 cars and run them in the FIA
Historic Formula One Championship and it preserves the Team Lotus archive and Works Collection of cars, under the management of
Colin Chapman's son, Clive.
Team Lotus's participation in Formula One ended at the end of the
1994 season, by which time the team's cars were no longer competitive. Team Lotus-constructed cars won a total of 79 Grand Prix races.
Former racing driver
David Hunt (brother of F1 world champion
James Hunt) purchased the name 'Team Lotus' and licensed it to the Formula One team
Pacific Racing, which was rebranded Pacific Team Lotus.[32] The Pacific Team folded at the end of the 1995 season.
The Lotus name returned to Formula One for the
2010 season, when a new Malaysian team called
Lotus Racing was awarded an entry. The new team used the Lotus name under licence from Group Lotus and was unrelated to the original Team Lotus. In September 2010 Group Lotus, with agreement from its parent company Proton, terminated the licence for future seasons as a result of what it called "flagrant and persistent breaches of the licence by the team". Lotus Racing then announced that it had acquired Team Lotus Ventures Ltd, the company led by David Hunt, and with it full ownership of the rights to the "Team Lotus" brand and heritage. The team confirmed that it would be known as Team Lotus from 2011 onwards.
In December 2010, Group Lotus announced the creation of Lotus Renault GP, the successor to the
Renault F1 team. This team contested the
2011 season having purchased a title sponsorship deal with the team, with the option to buy shares in the future. The team's car for that season, the
R31, was badged as a Renault, while Team Lotus's car, the
T128, was badged as a Lotus. In May 2011, the British
High Court of Justice ruled that Team Lotus could continue to use the "Team Lotus" name, but Group Lotus had sole right to use the "Lotus" name on its own. As a consequence, for
2012 Lotus Renault GP was rebranded as
Lotus F1 Team and its cars were badged as Lotuses, while Team Lotus was renamed
Caterham F1 Team (after the
sports car manufacturer owned by team principal
Tony Fernandes) and its cars were badged as Caterhams.
After fielding underpowered and uncompetitive engines in the 2012
Indianapolis 500, in which drivers
Jean Alesi and
Simona de Silvestro were black-flagged after ten laps for failing to maintain a competitive pace, Lotus was released from its contract and did not participate in future seasons.
Lotus Evija: The Lotus Evija is a limited production electric sports car; it is the first electric vehicle to be introduced and manufactured by the company. Codenamed "Type 130", production of the Evija will be limited to 130 units. Production is set to begin early-mid 2021 with delivery in early 2023. The Evija is powered by a 70 kWh battery pack developed in conjunction with Williams Advanced Engineering, with electric motors supplied by Integral Powertrain. The four individual motors are placed at the wheels and each is rated at 375 kW (510 PS; 503 hp), for a combined total output of 1,500 kW (2,039 PS; 2,011 hp) and 1,704 N⋅m (1,257 lb⋅ft) of torque. Lotus claims that the Evija will be able to accelerate from 0 to 100 km/h (62 mph) in under 3 seconds, from 0 to 300 km/h (186 mph) in 9.1 seconds, and achieve a limited top speed of 350 km/h (217 mph).[33]
Lotus Eletre: The first high-performance electric SUV from Lotus. Eletre is powered by a 112 kWh battery pack and an 800V high voltage system, achieving a maximum range of 600 km and 400 km of range in 20 minutes of charging. The 2024 model offers 603 horsepower for the base and S models, and 905 horsepower the R model and a top speed of 260 km/h. It is the first Lotus to offer features like LiDAR.[34][35] Delivery began on 29 March 2023, and is expected to launch in Europe in the summer or fall of 2023 and in the United States in 2024.[36][37][38]
At the 2010 Paris Motorshow, Lotus announced five new models to be introduced over the next five years:[43] Their intention was to replace the
Elise with an entirely different model, as well as to introduce two entirely new sports coupes, which would have been known as the Elite and the Elan, a new sports saloon, the Eterne, to rival the
Aston Martin Rapide and
Maserati Quattroporte, and a modern interpretation of the Esprit supercar.[44]
It became apparent in July 2012 that the firm's financial difficulties had made this plan impossible to implement, and initially all but the Esprit project were cancelled.[45][46] Subsequently, the Esprit project was also cancelled.[47]
Lotus also showed an unnamed city car concept using its 1.2L range-extender engine.[48]
In 2011, Lotus revealed this as the
Lotus Ethos, a plug-in hybrid car based on the
EMAS concept from its parent company Proton, and likely to be primarily built by Proton in Malaysia.[44] This car has also been cancelled.[49]
Lotus CEO at the time Jean Marc Gales confirmed in 2017 that development of an SUV is currently under way, after the company was acquired by the Chinese automotive manufacturer, Geely.[50]
In July 2019 Lotus revealed the Evija, a 1,470 kW (2,000 PS; 1,970 hp) and 1,700 N⋅m (1,254 lb⋅ft) electric
supercar.
In January 2021, Lotus teased that the
Elise,
Exige, and
Evora will be discontinued and be replaced by the Type 131 which had yet to be released at the time of announcement. In July 2021, Lotus revealed that this new model will be called
Emira.
In November 2021, Lotus teased the future introduction of the future
Type 132 SUV.[51]
In September 2023, Lotus announced the Lotus Emeya, the company's first electric GT car.[52]
Range Extender Engine. This all-aluminium, monoblock, 1200 cc, three-cylinder, 47 horsepower, four-stroke engine is specifically designed to directly drive an
alternator for electricity generation for
series-hybrid cars. The engine is small and light at 56 kg (123 lb), having three cylinders and no detachable cylinder head. The cylinder head and engine block are all one casting to reduce size, weight and production costs. As the engine does not turn belt driven ancillaries such as alternator, power-steering pump or an air conditioning compressor, the block requires no strong points to accommodate such ancillaries, resulting in a simple and light block. The engine has a reduced parts count for lightness and cheaper production.[53][54]
On 18 August 2011 Lotus developed an all new in-house designed V8 destined for the new era range of cars. At 170 kg (375 lb) and just 612 mm (24.1 in) long, the unit is dry sump lubricated to save depth and will feature a 180° flat plane crank. The engine is being utilised as a stressed component, a technique pioneered by Colin Chapman in F1, specifically with the 1967 Type 49. It was expected to be used in the Le Mans LMP2 car in 2012. Expected performance is likely to be in excess of 590 PS (434 kW; 582 hp) and with a 9,200 rpm redline.[55]
Lotus Engineering Limited is an
offshoot of Lotus Cars, which provides engineering consultancy to third-party companies primarily in the automotive industry. As well as
Hethel in the United Kingdom Lotus has engineering centres in
Ann Arbor, USA,
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia and Shanghai, China. In 2000, Lotus Engineering, Inc. was established with an office in
Ann Arbor, Michigan.[56]
Engineering demonstrators
Lotus Eco Elise is an engineering demonstrator of its classic sports car that incorporates
solar panels into a roof made from
hemp, while also employing natural materials in the body and interior of the car.
Lotus Exige 265E Bio-fuel
Lotus Exige 270E Tri-fuel
Lotus Evora 414E Hybrid. Shown at the 2010 Geneva Motor show
Whereas the VVA technology was to be used in the development of a new mid-engine sportscar for Lotus cars, the APX is, in fact, a high-performance 7-seat MPV with four-wheel drive and a front-mounted V6 engine from Lotus Engineering's Powertrain division. The engine was designed and developed to be available in a 2.2-litre naturally aspirated and 3.0-litre supercharged variations. An electric version was also shown in the 2007 NADA show.
Versatile Vehicle Architecture (VVA) is an effort by the Lotus car manufacturing company to reduce the investment needed for producing unique, niche-market cars by sharing a number of common components.
DMC DeLorean. Changes to the original concept led to considerable schedule pressures. The car was deemed to require almost complete re-engineering, which was turned over to engineer
Colin Chapman, founder of Lotus. Lotus replaced most of the unproven material and manufacturing techniques with those then employed by Lotus in the
Lotus Esprit
Vauxhall Lotus Carlton (also Opel Lotus Omega, internal name Lotus Type 104) – At the time (early 1990s) this was the fastest saloon car available, with a top speed of over 175 mph (280 km/h)
The 1991
Dodge Spirit R/T with a version of the 2.2 L K-car engine with a 16-valve DOHC head designed by Lotus with over 220 hp (160 kW)
Vauxhall VX220 (badged Opel Speedster outside of the UK) – Lotus produced and based the car upon the same aluminium chassis design as the
Lotus Elise. Production of these models ended in 2005
Lotus styled and assisted with the engineering of the
Tesla Roadster, an electric sports car based on the Elise, as well as licensing some technologies to
Tesla Motors and constructing the Roadster at their plant in
Hethel.[57]
The
Aston Martin DB9's chassis was developed with the help of Lotus Engineering
Lotus was responsible for most of the design, development, and testing, of the
LT5 DOHC V8 powerplant for the
Chevrolet Corvette C4 ZR-1
Lotus designed, developed and tested the GM Ecotec engine and its variants
Lotus was responsible for various aspects of the
Sinclair C5 electric tricycle
Lotus was responsible for the development of the
Campro engine together with Proton,[58] as well as its
variable valve timing system, the Cam Profile Switching (CPS). Currently available in the 1.6-litre and 1.3-litre variants, the Campro engine now powers most of Proton's newer models
Lotus has worked on the suspension of the
Mahindra Scorpio to make it more stable at high speeds
Lotus produced the revised chassis of the
Isuzu Piazza
Lotus has worked on the suspension and handling of the
Volvo 480
Lotus has worked on the suspension and handling of the
Nissan GT-R[59]
Lotus rebuilt, modified, and tuned a
Lada Riva on Top Gear season 1, episode 8.
The 2006 Volkswagen GX3 features a chassis developed by Lotus for VW
The 2009
Kia Soul features Lotus tuned suspension (UK only)
2010: Limo-Green project with
Jaguar Cars. Lotus provided the Range Extender engine for a prototype
XJ series-hybrid car. The car returned 58 mpg (imperial) running off the range extender alone[60]
Lotus partnered with Jaguar for developing chassis system and engine management of the Jaguar C-X75. The engine is a supercharged 1.6 turbo petrol engine rated at 507 PS (500 hp; 373 kW) coupled with a 177 PS (175 hp; 130 kW).
Lotus has worked on handling and steering of the 2015 Hyundai Genesis.
The 2015
Spyker B6 Venator is powered by a Lotus-built engine originating from a Toyota-sourced block.
The
Baojun 730, a Chinese minivan with Lotus-tuned suspension, built by a
General Motors subsidiary.
Lotus unveiled their first production electric hypercar called the
Evija in July 2019, production would be limited to 130 units and is scheduled to begin in summer 2020 and is being delivered to customers in early 2023. The car was undergoing development under the codename Type 130. The Evija makes use of a 70 kWh battery pack developed in conjunction with Williams Advanced Engineering. There are 4 electric motors, one placed on each wheel supported by an Integral powertrain. The powertrain is rated at a total output of 2,039 PS (1,500 kW; 2,011 hp) with 1,704 N⋅m (1,257 lb⋅ft) of torque. The Evija has a range of 346 km (215 mi).[62][63][64][65][33]
Other cars
The
Tesla Roadster is based on the Elise chassis. On 11 July 2005, Tesla and Lotus entered an agreement about products and services based on the Lotus Elise, where Lotus provided advice on designing and developing a vehicle as well as producing partly assembled vehicles.[66][67]
Lotus Engineering has established a group dedicated to hybrid and electric vehicles.[68]
Lotus Engineering developed the Evora 414E as their first hybrid concept car. Featuring a total hybrid range of more than 300 miles.[69]
^The rights to the Seven were sold in 1973 to
Caterham Cars. Updated versions of this 1957 design are also produced by other speciality firms, including
Westfield Sportscars and
Donkervoort. Originally the number seven was applied to a
Riley-powered Formula 2 car, but the vehicle was never completed in its original form, finally emerging instead as the
Clairmonte Special, a two-seat sports car powered by a Lea-Francis engine.
^A mid-engined sports car, launched in the early 1970s. It was styled by Italian designer
Giorgetto Giugiaro. The Esprit started with a light, 4-cylinder design, which went through several iterations of turbo-charging and electronic upgrades, before finally being replaced by a highly advanced V8. The last Lotus Esprit rolled off the production line on 20 February 2004, after 28 years in production. A total of 10,675 Esprits were built since production began in 1976.
^GT inspired two-seater claimed to offer a more upmarket sportscar experience, although it is based on the same chassis as the Elise and Exige, limiting accommodation and practicality. Power comes from a Lotus-tuned variant of the turbocharged four-cylinder engine which powers the VX220. The Europa has been criticised in the motoring press for being expensive and for lacking equipment and practicality compared to rivals like the
Porsche Cayman.
^Tesla, Lotus Position
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