Lotus Emira: Lotus could extend the life cycle of Emira sportscar more by launching a new petrol-hybrid system. Earlier this year, the company disclosed intent to go all electric, meaning that the all-electric version of the sportscar will take longer to arrive.
Lotus brought in the Emira in 2021 (with intent to bring it to India in 2023) the last car completely based on combustion engines replacing the Evora it emerged from. While the company never declared when exactly the production of Emira will cease, its previous strategy of transitioning to an electric-only brand makes its natural successor the Type 135 in 2027. Most likely by then it was expected that Emira would no longer exist.
Lotus Sports Car Lineup
This shift also brings into question the future of Lotus’ remaining sports car lineup, as the brand previously has planned to go all-electric by 2028. The company offers it today with a 2,000 cc four-cylinder turbo-petrol engine of Mercedes-AMG with a capacity of 360 horsepower or a Toyota-supplied supercharger with 400 horses. These engines are used by both Mercedes and Toyota in their respective hybrid systems or slightly derivative thereof.
If Lotus were to offer a hybrid version of the Emira it would certainly require considerable changes and likely re-tuning of the third party components in order to retain the sports coupe’s performance and dynamics. In general, this seems possible in a strict technological sense, if no structural modifications are to be made.
Lotus ‘Hyper Hybrid’ REx Technology
To accelerate the sales of EVs, the company is also working on range-extender technology known as ‘Hyper Hybrid’ REx which is planned to be incorporated in Lotus EVs since 2026. It employs 900V electrics, and is connected to the EPA architecture on which the Emeya and Eletre EVs will be based, and consequently, can’t be integrated into the Emira.
It leaves the future of sportscar at a more precarious point than ever before; let alone as the Type 135, the promised heir in the line-up, slated to be the next Lotus, the company has also put on hold the regimen on fresh product unveilments.
