Lotus Previews All-New Sports Car Emira

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Lotus has revealed that its all new sports car will be called the Emira. That’s not all as the British carmaker has also given us information about four new vehicle architectures and a technology roadmap.

Let’s start with the big news then – the Emira (pronounced ‘E-meer-a’). Lotus claims that the sports will be the successor to the Exige and will have a design inspired from the 2,000hp Evija. Also, future Lotus cars will follow similar design language.

The good news is that the Emira will not be electric or even a hybrid. Instead, the sports car will mark the end of the ICE for Lotus and be the firm’s last petrol-powered car. For those of you who are wondering, the word ‘Emira’ means ‘commander’ or ‘leader’.

Built on a new flexible lightweight aluminium platform known as ‘Elemental’, the Emira will have an engine “tuned to help deliver that distinctive Lotus experience”. The sports car is set to be unveiled on 6 July at Hethel, Norfolk.

Apart from the sports car platform on which the Emira will sit, Lotus has also made a hypercar or Extreme platform which underpins the all-electric Evija, a Premium or Evolution architecture which will be the base for the carmaker’s first electric SUV and lastly an electric sports car architecture developed in partnership with Renault’s Alpine brand. The platform is known as E-Sports and will underpin the all-electric sports car which Lotus will make in collaboration with Alpine.

The Emira, Evija and new platforms will lead Lotus into a new era and multi-channel retail strategy.

“Launching an all-new visual identity for our retail partners is another hugely exciting step in our transformation of the Lotus brand,” Lotus executive director of sales and aftersales, Geoff Dowding said. “Evija goes into production, Emira is launched, and a new suite of dedicated vehicle architectures is confirmed to further catapult Lotus into new markets, new segments and new volume territory,” he added.