Lotus could electrify the Emira and extend its lifecycle as the brand moves to hybridise its line-up and pushes back the sports car’s long-awaited electric replacement.
It’s responding to flagging uptake of electric luxury cars by reducing its sales volume ambitions over the coming years and introducing a new range-extender (REx) powertrain option in a bid to boost the appeal of its EVs.
The move marks a reversal of Lotus’s plan to go all-electric by 2028 and raises questions about the future of its last remaining sports car, which was due to be effectively replaced by an EV equivalent in the coming years.
Lotus launched the Emira in 2021 as its final pure-combustion car and as an effective replacement for the Evora from which it was evolved.
The firm has never put an end date on Emira production, but under its now-axed plan to go all-electric, it was due to usher in an EV successor known as the Type 135 in 2027, and it was expected that the Emira would be phased out in kind.
Now, however, Lotus’s new European CEO Dan Balmer has suggested the Hethel-built coupé could live on with an electrified powertrain instead.
Asked about the prospect of an Emira hybrid, he said: “In today’s world? ‘Never say never’ is the current rule, because we have to be open-minded and understand what the marketplace wants and also what technology is available to us at the time.
“So the potential for hybrid powertrains is there. Equally the potential for all-EV platforms is there. It’s just a question of what technology is available for the attributes that we spec in a Lotus.”
The Emira is currently available with a 2.0-litre four-cylinder turbo petrol engine supplied by Mercedes-AMG, producing 360bhp, or a Toyota-derived supercharged petrol V6 with 400bhp.
Both Mercedes and Toyota use these respective units – or at least versions thereof – as part of hybrid powertrains in their own line-ups.
