Lotus’s first all-new series-production car in 12 years is a final “celebration of the glories of combustion” before the storied British firm enters its electrified future.
The new Emira has been officially revealed. Read all about it here.
Taking the name Emira, which means ‘commander’ in several ancient languages, it will be revealed on 6 July ahead of a debut later in the week at Goodwood. Along with the Evija electric hypercar, the new Emira, developed under the Type 131 codename and designed to revive the spirit of the Esprit, will kick-start a major product offensive from Hethel under its ongoing Vision 80 revival plan.
Future models from the Geely-owned firm will be based on one of four new platforms, including a premium one that will spawn its first SUV and one for electric sports cars. It had been rumoured that the Emira would be a hybrid but, as first reported by Autocar, the new Porsche 911 rival will be offered with a choice of two petrol engines: a turbocharged 2.0-litre four-cylinder unit sourced from an as yet unnamed new partner and the supercharged 3.5-litre Toyota V6 used in the Lotus Evora.
The Emira will be built on Lotus’s lightweight aluminium Sports Car platform (known internally as the Elemental), a heavily reworked version of the Evora’s base, and have styling influenced by the Evija. The Emira will be the final petrol-only Lotus, with all future models to be either hybrid or fully electric.
The move into EVs has been started by the Evija, which is based on Lotus’s new Hypercar architecture.
The third platform will be the Premium architecture (dubbed the Evolution), used for a range of “lifestyle vehicles” designed to sell in higher volumes, including that first SUV.
