Increasing profits is the goal for Matt Windle, managing director of Group Lotus since January 2021. He's presiding over an explosion of new products and a well-funded future made possible by the deep pockets of Geely. The Chinese giant has pumped more than $3 billion into the plucky but chronically underfunded British sports car and racing marque. Lotus has said goodbye to standard-bearers-Elise, Exige, Evora over the past few years and next plans to fire off new products, including its first SUV, like Steph Curry on a three-point tear.
Launching as you read this, and due in America this fall, is the Emira, which the company calls its last gasoline-powered car. Coming “late in the second quarter, early third quarter,” according to Windle, is the oft-delayed Evija, a near-2000-hp electric hypercar with a price tag of more than $2 million-an edition so limited it skirts import regulations by qualifying as “show and display only.” Then, in the not-too-distant future, expect a series of more affordable electric sports cars based on the company's new aluminum-intensive platform. The so-called light electric vehicle architecture (LEVA) aims to move the goalposts from what the Elise's groundbreaking chassis did back in the 1990s. Substantially lighter-lightness being Lotus's raison d'être since its founding by Colin Chapman almost three-quarters of a century ago—the Evija's rear structure tips in with 37 percent less mass than the Emira's. LEVA will underpin a range of sports machines of different sizes, with batteries stacked vertically behind the driver or laid out horizontally, skateboard-style.
This story is from the May 2022 edition of Car and Driver.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the May 2022 edition of Car and Driver.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
Great Aspirations
Highs: Excellent fuel economy, good controls, quiet on the highway. Lows: Bigger outside than inside, just-average dynamics, premium pricing.
Treading Water
Highs: Sharper styling, big new touchscreen, solid electric range. Lows: No all-wheel drive, steep pricing, rivals are quicker.
Higher-Purpose Hybrid
Forget electric range. This plug-in hybrid delivers 791 horsepower.
1979-93 - WHAT TO BUY: SAAB 900
Echoing the design of the long-running 99 that preceded it, the updated and modernized Saab 900 was the car that brought the fringe Swedish brand into its closest proximity to the mainstream, which honestly wasn't that close.
12-Cylinder Salute
Bentley makes 18 Continental GT-based Baturs as a send-off for its W-12.
How to Winch in a Pinch
We head out into the Utah wilderness with the Cameron Advanced Mobility team to learn to off-road like military special forces.
Time Machines
A trip to Duncan Imports prompts an unexpected rendezvous with cars from my past. And want them all back. Well, except maybe the Ram.
Now Hear This
Automakers are going to new lengths to create the sounds of modern cars.
Getting Hammered
Jonathan Hodgman isn't afraid of a challenge, and his shop, Blue Ridge Mercedes, specializes in the difficult task of repairing early AMGS.
2022 GENESIS GV70
Long-Term Test AFTER TRACKING EVERY FILL-UP, SERVICE, PROBLEM, COMPLAINT, DENT, AND DOG HAIR, CAR AND DRIVER PRESENTS THE 40,000-MILE EVALUATION.