LOTUS has ended manufacturing of its Elise, Exige and Evora sports activities automobiles. The trio was photographed in Hethel, England (the place the agency has been based mostly since 1966) with most of the crew liable for the meeting, design, engineering and gross sales of the model’s three E-model mainstays.
Mixed, the three fashions have contributed to nearly half of all autos produced by Lotus in its 73-year historical past.
The British marque additionally produced 9715 autos for third-party purchasers reminiscent of GM and Tesla. These included 7200 Opel Speedsters and Vauxhall VX220s (from 2000 to 2005) and 2515 Tesla Roadsters between 2007 and 2012 – together with the instance that Elon Musk despatched into house!
“Initially, I wish to thank the Lotus crew who’ve labored on the Elise, Exige and Evora through the years and who at the moment are transferring to Emira and Evija manufacturing,” Lotus Automobiles managing director Matt Windle mentioned.
“I’d additionally prefer to convey huge gratitude to all the purchasers of the Elise, Exige and Evora during the last 26 years, for his or her ardour, enthusiasm and assist. These clients have given our ‘three Es’ true cult standing – often reserved for long-out-of-production classics.
“As we are saying farewell to the previous couple of automobiles, we sit up for producing the Emira and Evija within the all-new factories at Hethel and sub-assembly amenities in Norwich, the place we’ll implement higher efficiencies and automation, obtain greater high quality and suppleness and start a vastly thrilling subsequent chapter in our Vision80 technique,” he added.
Lotus mentioned that since manufacturing of the Elise started in 1996 it had bought 35,124 examples of the fundamental sportscar. The Exige, launched in 2000, garnered a complete of 10,497 gross sales, whereas 6117 items of the Evora, which entered manufacturing in 2011, had been bought throughout the globe.
The ultimate manufacturing run consisted of Lotus 340R, Europa, 2-Eleven, and 3-Eleven automobiles.
The automobiles pictured embody considered one of every variant – an Elise Sport 240 Closing Version in Yellow, an Exige Cup 340 Closing Version in Heritage Racing Inexperienced and an Evora GT340 Sport in Darkish Metallic Gray.
Lotus says the trio’s present meeting strains, which had been put in in 2000, might be disassembled and changed with trendy manufacturing strains to assist manufacturing of the all-new Emira – Lotus’ final petrol-powered manufacturing automobile.
Manufacturing of the Emira will begin in Q2 subsequent yr after the brand new mannequin’s prototype- and take a look at phases have been accomplished. The brand new manufacturing line might be able to churning out as many as 5000 examples of the Emira yearly, based mostly on a single-shift sample.
The Emira might be joined by the Evija electrical hypercar and the all-electric Kind 132, Lotus’ first SUV, which might be revealed to the world across the second quarter of 2022.
Richard Rackham, Head of Car Ideas, who was a part of the crew that pioneered extruded- and bonded aluminium expertise within the automotive business, mentioned: “The affect of those three automobiles has been spectacular through the years, technically, structurally and dynamically.
“However all applied sciences and improvements transfer on and, if you happen to had requested me of my proudest second 4 years in the past, I’d have, with out hesitation, mentioned (being the car architect of) the Elise chassis. Nonetheless, this has been usurped by our new Mission LEVA structure for our new vary of electrical sports activities automobiles, beginning with the Kind 135 in a couple of years’ time.
“That is now the zenith of Lotus architectures, as a result of it has moved the expertise recreation a lot additional. There’s a lot to sit up for,” Mr Rackham concluded.
The ultimate examples of the Elise, Exige and Evora fashions are reserved for Lotus’ rising heritage assortment.
