2020 Lotus Elise to remain true to its roots

A target weight of 900kg is believed to have been set for the new Elise, despite the additional challenges involved in building the car to meet US regulations. Although that is a stark rise over the original S1’s 725kg in particular, the need to hit US crash regulation targets may dictate that while the car will be no longer than the current Elise’s 3.7 metres, it needs to be wider in order to incorporate side airbags and extra crash structures.

That, in turn, presents a challenge to keep cabin entry and egress for the driver and passenger simple. However, Lotus has made great strides in this area with the Evora and engineers are said to be confident they can do the same again. The firm has also greatly reduced the weight of its composite body panels in recent years and, in time, super-lightweight variants of the car are expected to be delivered and hit target weights of below 900kg.

Lotus is currently launching the revamped Evora 400 in the US and Gales has made no secret of the fact that he sees growth in that market as key to driving increased profits at the Norfolk firm. “Our biggest markets today are Japan, Britain, Germany and France — in that order,” said Gales. “But there is no question that the US will be our number one market, with sales of the Lotus Evora 400 starting there this summer. It represents a fantastic opportunity.”

The original Elise’s core design has evolved from the iconic Julian Thomson-penned original over the past 20 years, and the new car is expected to follow the trend for more instantly arresting design, while maintaining the car’s familiar shape and design cues.

It is not clear if emissions legislation will push Lotus towards running a power-assisted steering system. However, while talking about Lotus’s DNA, Gales emphasised that the purity of steering feel, for which the firm is famed, will never be compromised. “We have steering that nobody else has matched,” he said. “That is part of our company and we will never do anything that disrupts that. It is a core part of Lotus.”

As now, power is expected to come from a Toyota unit that is reworked by Lotus. Although Gales would not be drawn on the specifics, he offered broad praise of the Japanese firm when probed on the subject. “The Toyota engine isn’t just proven as a great engine for the Elise across a variety of power outputs. It also has tremendous reliability,” he said. “The warranty data is so impressive. We have invested a lot in the Toyota relationship and it is really successful.”

A key part of managing the new Elise’s roll-out will be which power outputs are made available. Autocar expects the current car to be evolved between now and 2020, in terms of power, weight and equipment, but it seems likely that the outputs of the new Elise will closely mirror the 134bhp to 243bhp available today to attract as broad a customer base as possible.

The US market push means it is likely that the car will be offered with a choice of manual and automatic gearboxes, both sourced from Toyota. Evora sales are said to be predominantly auto in the US, and although such a move may be at odds with the Elise’s purer driving credentials, market forces are likely to dictate that buyers can opt for an auto. It is believed that plans to launch a new Elise have been made possible because Lotus is poised to return to profit for the first time in 20 years over the next 12 months.