The New Lotus Esprit - the only new Lotus actually being developed
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 had expected was to see the Lotus Evora get an auto ‘box option and a new supercharged Lotus Evora. We reckoned they were a dead cert and that just left the long-expected new Lotus Esprit. Which we got.
But what we also got was a complete new model range from Lotus: The Lotus Eterne, The Lotus Elite, The Lotus Elan and a new Lotus Elise. Which made us question how on earth Lotus could expect to be taken seriously when they seem intent on going from an almost one-model range to a range bigger than Aston Martin. So we looked for answers.
The answer to the Lotus conundrum seemed to be a war chest of some £770 million from parent company Proton to turn Lotus in to the East Anglian Aston Martin, with some help from a handful of ex-Ferrari personnel including Lotus CEO Dany Bahar.
We’ve since learned that isn’t quite as clear-cut as we thought, with just an intent by Proton to underwrite loans for Lotus rather than a big-time investment. Still, it at least made the plans seem a bit less Mickey Mouse than they first appeared. But now it seems the plans really are Mickey-Mouse. Or at least Fantasy Land.
Because the only new Lotus actually under development is the new Lotus Esprit. Which is exactly what we though before all the hoo-haa at Paris. And it seems that dealing with adding a supercharger and an auto ‘box option to the Evora and developing the new Esprit is as much as the Lotus set-up can cope with. The rest of the ‘New’ Lotus Range is just a wish list. There’s a shock.
As an aside, there is apparently no truth in the rumour that Lotus has adopted En Vogue’s ‘Back to Life – Back to reality’ as its new corporate anthem, to be sung by the entire board before every meeting to discuss future plans.
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