Lotus has endured torrid times. Could a new sports EV in the mould of past greats be its saviour?
Car lovers know a true Lotus when they see one. The brand’s core values are among the clearest of any marque on the road, harking back nearly 80 years to the earliest days of Colin Chapman.
A real Lotus is low, sporty and compact, with a confident stance that implies fine driving qualities.
The exterior shape may not always be consistent with that of its predecessors (look at the differences between the Elan and the Esprit for evidence of that), but the styling always carries a delicacy that speaks of low weight, compactness, efficiency and a forward-thinking openness to new technology.
From 1965 to 2022, every new Lotus embodied these values and was built in Lotus’s Hethel factory, opened when Chapman acquired a former RAF base south of Norwich and moved the business there so it could have its own test track.
Lotus life moved on, often through thick and thin, because, throughout its eight decades, the company’s affairs have always been volatile.
This year that volatility peaked. Four years before, Geely, Lotus’s Chinese owner, had started applying the marque’s famous yellow roundel to a range of UK-designed, Wuhan-built, large EVs unlike any Lotus before.
Having aimed at 150,000 units per year, Geely found it could sell only a small fraction of that number, and it drew criticism for misunderstanding the soul of Lotus while confusing customers and loyalists about the company’s future.
Meanwhile, the Hethel-built Emira sports car, the Evora-based current model billed at its 2022 launch as the last-ever combustion-engined Lotus, had been selling moderately well (5000-plus units in 2024) but not well enough for the Chinese ownership.
Even slower sales by rivals such as Alpine’s A110 indicated that mid-priced two-seater sports cars simply weren’t as fashionable as they used to be.
To make matters worse, tough new American import tariffs began decimating Hethel sales and even caused Geely to talk about moving Emira production to the US. Lotus staff numbers were slashed; irreplaceable managers were ‘let go’.
There were even suggestions (until the UK government intervened) that Hethel would close – a huge blow to the UK’s reputation as a maker of specialist cars.
The situation calmed a little when Geely hurriedly produced assurances that Hethel would remain as Lotus’s sports car headquarters. But the threat still hovers, and current Emira production, slow and sometimes stationary, is far from economic.
So what next? Feeling acutely aware of the disaster that could follow the loss of Lotus’s most important base in the UK, we at Autocar wondered if there was anything we could do beyond reporting the news and expressing regrets.
After discussion, we decided that one bold route to profitability could be to launch a sister model for the Emira that, if specified correctly, might draw buyers from the tariff-free markets of Europe and move Hethel closer to capacity and profitability.
We alighted on a proposal for a sporty but practical Lotus 2+2 EV, more of a family-friendly ‘daily driver’ than the Emira but still around Emira size, because that’s part of the family DNA.
It would have Emira-level performance and dynamics, too, but would be an EV because, as well as being the powertrain of the future, the latest electric powertrain developments promise a spacious and accessible cabin even in such a compact car.
We reckoned that by the time our car would be ready (estimated to be 2028), it could have strong buyer appeal in the UK and Europe (the world’s third-biggest car market, running to 12 million units per year), especially as EV sales keep rising and tariffs aren’t a problem in the region. But what would such a car be like?
To explore this crucial question, we gathered a small team of top British designers and engineers to propose their version of a car to save Hethel, with Autocar as the client.
Alas, they were given only four weeks to create it – an impossibly short time in practice – but they accepted the challenge with alacrity. What follows is nothing less than a comprehensive picture of British ingenuity.
Choosing a Name
Believing firmly that, for an emotional car like this, an early name choice helps define the product, we had one ready. We chose Elite, a distinguished Lotus name that has been used before, just as Elan and Esprit have been.
The logic was clear: a familiar name would win instant attention. We’ve never warmed to the recent Lotus practice of rifling the dictionary for ever less relevant ‘E-names’ when famous handles languished on the shelf.
Rather than opting for Expunge or Extant, the new Elite could draw direct influence from the lightness of the Type 14 ‘eggshell’ Elite of 1957 while learning lessons in space efficiency from the compact 2+2 Type 75 ‘wedge’ Elite of 1974.
This new car would be the Elite Type 130-something of 2028, the first Lotus 2+2 since the Evora popped its clogs in 2022 – and the first approachable Hethel-built EV ever, leaving aside Lotus’s Evija billionaire’s special of 2019 and Tesla’s pioneering, electrified, Elise-based Roadster of 2008.
The designers
Avant Design of Leamington Spa was our instant choice to lead our Elite S4 project. It’s an independent father-and-son business established in 2018 by the hugely experienced designer Jonathan Gould, soon joined in the company by his designer son Chris as design director.
The special skill of Avant’s seven in-house designers is their command of the latest generation of digital design tools.
These skills, already well deployed in the new Longbow ‘featherweight’ sports EV, made them uniquely able to tackle our project through phases such as research (which were the relevant cars, past and present?), branding (what kind of design suited modern Lotus values?), colour and material choices and, of course, top-class 2D and 3D rendering.
In practically no time, they created a car from our loose brief, choosing the best from literally dozens of their own team’s alternatives.
The basis of this car was to be a highly versatile version of an all-British EV ‘skateboard’ chassis called PACES, developed by Cornwall-based Watt Electric Vehicles. It’s an aluminium structure comprising specially shaped (and patented) extrusions that self-jig and can be assembled accurately and economically in small numbers with no need for an elaborate factory.
Watt EV founder Neil Yates and his chief technical officer Bob Mustard have adapted their structure from delivery vans to sports cars, including the Longbow. Watt and Avant also have an extensive history of working harmoniously together to deliver ‘turnkey’ vehicles a key part of any time-limited programme. Their well-honed partnership was perfect for our job.
Avant’s team not only produced the superb concept you see here but also used their own new-tech virtual reality studio to view proposed versions from every conceivable angle. Then they checked the package by virtually climbing inside it to assess the interior.
Here are the key characteristics of the Elite S4 we visualised:
– A low, sleek and stylish but cleverly packaged EV, similar in exterior dimensions to the Alpine A110, about 4.2 metres long and 1.8 metres wide.
– Avant’s own concept of a modern Lotus, not copying a specific model but incorporating clear hints about its provenance.
– A sports coupé capable of housing two adults, two kids and a compact rear-mounted, rear-drive electric powertrain, with luggage space.
– Wide doors to provide easy access for front occupants and possibly smaller doors for the rear passengers.
– A space-efficient and uncomplicated control/fascia layout, sporting in character, with an emphasis on driving ease and precision.
Avant’s creation, to our eye, captured the soul of an Elite daily driver, with impressively spacious accommodation, unique design features (such as its beautiful central spine), decent head room and a forward-control cabin that occupied much of the generous wheelbase while retaining an ultra-sporting character. All this with lightness, compactness and modernity implied by its surfaces and lines.
We were delighted – and especially with the door designs, a pair of large, upward-opening scissor doors for front passengers (Jonathan Gould has a strong liking for the ‘theatre’ when they open) and a neat pair of rear ‘dickey doors’ to ease rear access.
The engineers
We have encountered Yates, Mustard and their modular PACES platform in previous applications, but the whole thing has moved on. Their skateboard designs were much refined in design and changed in scale and variety. The clue to the Watt platform’s unique nature is in the name: Passenger And Commercial EV Skateboard.
The versatility flows mostly from the unique use of patented, self-locking extrusions, but PACES’ other big-note feature is the way it incorporates a battery in an integral and virtually crashproof enclosure that saves weight, adds rigidity and avoids adding the structural height that is commonly a problem.
PACES can support front-, rear- or four-wheel-drive vehicles. Business expansion at Watt has recently driven the need for a second factory at Pinvin, near Pershore in Worcestershire, much closer than Cornwall to potential clients in the Midlands – although demand is also growing from foreign customers. A low-volume ‘white-label’ vehicle factory capable of building 200 units per year is on the way, and even bigger news could follow once the finance is in place.
As soon as we started talking to Yates, it became clear that the chassis he proposed for our Elite S4 would be unique in all key dimensions (length, width, track and wheelbase), because providing the ideal specification for individual projects is the point of PACES.
Our all-independent, double-wishbone suspension would be unique to the Elite, as would its motors (in-wheel rear units each making 235bhp) and its 72kWh battery, forecast to give a generous 375mile cruising range along with quick charging courtesy of an 800V electrical system.
As proof of PACES’ versatility, we were even able to take a trip in a living, driving skateboard one they made earlier complete -with instruments and remarkably comfortable seats. The motor was nothing special, said Yates, but devoid of a body it still went like the wind and it felt as if, with a pair of trade plates, we could have taken it away for the weekend.
The panel at the top right of this page summarises the mechanical specification that Yates and CO devised and which they are convinced they could deliver. Note the compact dimensions, plus the low height and weight for a well-proportioned 2+2.
As we move towards Christmas, the AvantWatt-Autocar Lotus Elite S4 looks pretty good at carrying people, but above all it looks like a great car to drive.
What happens now?
What won’t happen is a call from Geely’s bosses right after Christmas with design and technical briefs for Avant Design and Watt Electric, plus a spot on the advisory team for Yours Truly. More realistic is a hope, in places where Autocar is seen, for a modestly increased realisation that:
– Hethel must be saved so that it can build in-character Lotus sports cars for the long term.
– Prodigious talent is as available as ever in small, creative, fast-moving UK companies such as Avant and Watt EV, well capable of creating new cars just as good as the classics of the past.
– Correctly created and configured, EVs can be the great driver’s cars of the future.
– The case for sports cars is as strong as ever, but they must meet the true needs of the market.
Let’s hope it can happen.
