Lotus Elan in frame as Boxster rival in revival plan

The scale of this investment has been estimated at around £1.5 billion by Bloomberg, although this figure is said to be “very conservative” by a Lotus spokesman. That sum should be enough to pay for the new architecture, whose structural concept will be similar to the current platform.

Lotus will retain the rivet-bonded alloy core concept, which, insiders say, provides excellent overall stiffness and allows plenty of scope to increase local rigidity for different models. These qualities will be essential if the high-grade driving dynamics promised by the company’s ‘for the driver’ brand ambition are to be achieved.

The rivet-bonded approach also suits Lotus’s sales goals. Although the firm is aiming to increase sales sixfold – from last year’s 1630 cars to around 10,000 by 2029 – this vehicle construction method reportedly remains the best solution for Lotus’s relatively low volumes.

The rivet-bonded and composite structure is also light – essential to the Lotus mission – and its detail design will benefit from the brand’s 25 years of production experience with this technology.

As before, a mix of materials will be used, probably across a wider palette that includes carbonfibre and several metals. A key ambition will be to reduce the time required to build each car, say insiders. That will be achieved by reducing the time it takes to bond each structure and also by cutting the number of hours required to assemble a car, the corollary of which should be improved quality.

Containing costs will be aided by the use of ‘keep zones’, the term Lotus engineers use to describe the three-dimensional slices of architecture that will be shared among all cars using this new platform. One example is the position of the front wheel relative to the driver’s seat, a high-investment zone of the platform that it makes sense to retain across all versions. But the ‘keep zones’ strategy doesn’t preclude tailoring the wheelbase and track to suit the needs of different models, insiders say.

As for the new model being introduced late next year, this will be the last new variant to be developed on the current Evora platform and much effort has been expended on ergonomics. That includes not only the driving position and forward visibility but also the ease of getting into and out of the car, a drawback of the current models that has limited sales.

Given the wide variety of cars to be derived from the all-new platform – from track-only models via an Elan to the Evora and Esprit supercar, which is also understood to bea long-term goal for Lotus – the scope for a variety of dynamic and functional levels will need to be built in. The company has reportedly done a lot of work assessing competitor cars to define these goals at the outset for each new model.

The targets also include the cars’ electrical functionality. Insiders have reported that membership of the Geely Group is giving Lotus affordable access to everything from infotainment systems and electronic dampers to electric power steering technology. The last of these will be essential for providing the advanced driver assistance systems mandated by law in some markets, but there will also be models, probably track-focused ones, with unassisted steering.