- lotus is planning a new sports car model to slot in below the evora gt.
- it will reportedly be more usable than the evora and cost less, with a starting price around $60,000.
- lotus has hinted that this may be its last new model to use a gasoline engine.
as lotus get the evija ev hypercar ready for its formal launch later this year, the british sports-car maker is also quietly working on another new model, one that ceo phil popham has recently described as being the company’s “last combustion sports car.”
the line came from an interview with automotive news europe last week, with popham saying we can expect to see the new model either later this year or early in 2021. car and driver has learned that it will be based on a version of the existing evora’s vva bonded aluminum architecture, although it will be different enough to be launched as a new model with its own name, positioned beneath the evora.
all of this tallies with what popham told us last march when we asked him about his plans for the company, when he committed lotus to making a more usable car that “people can live with on a daily basis.” we can expect the new car to have improved access and passenger accommodation when compared to the low, tight-fitting evora, as well as upgraded trim and technology levels. we’ve also been told that design takes inspiration from the evija.
what we don’t know yet is whether the new car will stick with toyota engines, as used by all of lotus’s current lineup, or if it will switch to an engine supplied from elsewhere in the geely group. while we wouldn’t be surprised to see a new motor, perhaps a volvo one, popham’s confirmation that the new car will be lotus’s final combustion model does suggest it may well stick with the toyota engines.
only the v-6–powered evora is currently on sale for road use in the u.s., but lotus still sells four-cylinder versions of the elise in other markets. we’re told that the new model will sit between the evora and the elise, suggesting that it will likely be a rival for the porsche cayman, with pricing starting around the $60,000 mark when it eventually reaches the u.s. we should know what lotus’s final pure combustion sports car looks like within the next year.