Despite rumours that Lotus was for sale, the sale of Lotus parent Proton to DRB-Hicom appears to preclude any sale of Lotus for two years. We reported recently that Lotus owners Proton had been advised to sell its loss-making Hethel car-maker Lotus as it geared up to be divested of State ownership in Malaysia. But it seems [...]
Analysts are advising Proton – owners of Lotus Group International – to divest itself of the loss-making Lotus. It was always difficult to see any sort of synergy between budget car maker Proton and Lotus. But that didn’t stop the Malaysian firm buying Lotus Group International (LGI) in 1996. But despite Proton’s best efforts – [...]
Lotus reveals plans to build the Esprit, Eterne, Elite and Elan with a £500 million investment which will create 1900 new jobs. Dany Bahar – Lotus boss – revealed plans at last year’s Paris Motor Show to turn Lotus in to an East Anglian Aston Martin. Those plans included one car we knew about – the new [...]
Lotus has launched a limited edition Evora – the Lotus Evora S GP Edition – with a paint job evoking memories of the Lotus JPS F1 cars. There was a time when the tobacco giants were seemingly single-handedly responsible for sports sponsorship, and perhaps the most evocative memory of that is the John Player Special F1 cars [...]
Lotus has released video of the 2012 Lotus Exige S showing the new, more powerful, Exige S running rings round a Boxer – or should that be Boxster? We’ve run a story or two on the 2012 Lotus Exige S – the one with the V6 from the Evora – in the run up to [...]
The Lotus Evora GTE road car – which debuted at Pebble beach and destined for Asia – will be sold in UK and Europe and debut at Frankfurt. We’ve decided we weren’t really on the ball with the Lotus Evora GTE at Pebble beach. Yes, we reported the most powerful Evora yet was heading to [...]
Lotus has made a one-off, special edition Evora – the Lotus Evora ‘Freddie Mercury Edition’ – to be auctioned in aid of Mercury Phoenix Trust. We really weren’t too sure when we got a press release drop in that said “Another Lotus Bites The Dust…” and then went on to say that Lotus are building a one-off Lotus [...]
Lotus reveals a single photo of the Lotus Evora GTE Road Car Concept, perhaps the ultimate Evora, which will debut at Pebble Beach. Lotus has taken away the Exige from its American customers with the Exige Matte Black Final Edition heralding the end, but is planning on giving back something a bit meatier at Pebble Beach [...]
The 2012 Lotus Exige will trade up its engine to the V6 from the Evora, as Lotus moves the Exige upmarket to meet the next generation of Lotus cars. We’ve reported, sometimes cynically, on Dany Bahar’s plans for Lotus. And some do seem to be a bit less than credible, certainly when you factor in [...]
Lotus are, once more, said to be taking a facelift Evora to Frankfurt and maybe even a production Evora R and Evora 414E. Don’t hold your breath. It’s a ‘back to reality’ story from Lotus, for a change, with the news that, possibly, they are going to take a facelift Lotus Evora to the Frankfurt Motor Show. [...]
Lotus are building a new V8 engine for the new Esprit, and it’s reported they will also create a four cylinder engine from half the V8 for the next generation Elise. It seems that Lotus are deadly serious in their plans to build an all new V8 engine to drop in to the new Lotus Esprit, and [...]
Dany Bahar – Lotus CEO – says Lotus are to build their own V8, and that the new Esprit will be more authentic than a 458 or MP4-12C. We thought Lotus were mad brave to announce to the world last year that they were turning themselves in to an East Anglian Aston Martin with a completely [...]
Team Lotus – in the guise of Tony Fernandes – has snapped up Caterham cars, bringing the link to Colin Chapman’s Lotus full circle. Team Lotus – that’s the ‘Lotus’ F1 run by Tony Fernandes, not the Hethel mob run by Dany Bahar – has bought Caterham Cars from Corven Ventures for an undisclosed sum. Which is [...]
Lotus has put together an advert for the Lotus Evora featuring the Evora having some hooning fun in a multi-storey car park. An advert for Lotus isn’t something you see every day. An advert destined for TV or cinema is even rarer. So when this Lotus Evora VT dropped in to our Inbox this morning [...]
Lotus reveals the Lotus Elise Club Racer, a stripped-down track-day Elise with Sport settings and no home comforts. Lotus may have plans to be the next Aston Martin, but for now it’s stuck with an Evora that’s not selling as well as it should and an Elise that is basically the same as the car [...]
The rumoured Lotus Evora facelift turns out to be a Mansory Lotus Evora with a new nose and lots of carbon fibre trim and is “…a taste of the future of Lotus product customisation.” The Interwebs have had a little buzz these last few days about a facelift for the Lotus Evora. It seems the [...]
The Lotus City Car – a range-extender 1.2 litre 3-pot – will go on sale in 2013. At the Paris Motor Show back in September Lotus arrived with more ‘New’ cars than any other car maker – much to everyone’s amazement. There was everything from the mid-engined Lotus Esprit to the Rapide-challenging four-door supercar that [...]
Lotus owners Proton have revealed a re-badged Lotus Europa as the Proton Lekir Concept at the Kuala Lumpur Motor Show. Lotus tried to make the 2006 Lotus Europa fulfil the same role in its lineup the original Lotus Europa did in the sixties – a bigger version of the main range. In the ’60s it [...]
Lotus revealed the Eterne, Elite, Elan, Esprit and a new Elise at last months’ Paris Motor Show. But only the New Lotus Esprit is actually being developed. The biggest surprise at the Paris Motor Show last month was a veritable shoal of new Lotus (Lotuses? Loti?) – far beyond anything we had expected. What we [...]
We have a photo of the new Lotus Elite – due in 2014 – with its top down and a video as well. I think we’ve just about got over the surprise of a New Lotus Elite dropping from a clear blue sky in the week before the Paris Motor Show. What we still haven’t [...]
Lotus has revealed a new Lotus Elise with up to 350bhp and starting at £40k. But not until 2015. Of all the Lotus reveals today at the Paris Motor Show, the new Lotus Elise is perhaps the one most easily understood. After all, the current Lotus Elise has been with us for a decade and [...]
Lotus are to launch a new Lotus Elan in 2013, featuring a 4.0 litre version of the Evora V6 with up to 470bhp. I know, you’re starting to get bored and wondering how on earth Lotus can suddenly churn out a range of models that are seemingly poles apart from where they are, and expect [...]
Lotus has gone slightly berserk with new model announcements today. This is for a new Rapide-challenging range-topper – the Lotus Eterne. You’ll have to stick with this if you’re going through these in chronological order. There was no way we could seriously do one story on all of the Lotus announcements today, so you’re getting one for each. Sort of. [...]
