Lotus And Williams Have Teamed Up, And It Might Involve A £2m Hypercar

Today we bring you some news straight from Lotus which doesn’t involve yet another new version of the ageing Elise/Evora/Exige. Nope, this particular item looks well into the future.

Hethel has announced a new “strategic technical partnership” with Williams Advanced Engineering, the offshoot of the famous F1 team which busies itself with projects ranging from Formula E car battery supply to Singer’s beautiful 964-based DLS.

The press release is for the most part quite vague. Lotus says that it intends to “share research and development into advanced propulsion technologies” with WAE, and…that’s about it. Some reading between the lines is necessary, but it’s hard to imagine what else this is related to other than electric powertrains.

This is particularly interesting since it was only a few months ago that a report from Autocar emerged claiming that Lotus has plans to make a £2 million electric hypercar. Should this be going ahead, it seems likely WAE will have some sort of involvement.

The tech would be used beyond the big ticket hypercar, however. “Applying advanced propulsion powertrains can provide numerous exciting solutions across multiple vehicle sectors,” Lotus CEO Phil Popham said. Colour us intrigued.

WAE managing director Craig Wilson said, meanwhile: “Williams Advanced Engineering takes great pride in delivering innovation for our customers at a rapid pace of development, born from our Formula One heritage. We will be further developing next generation powertrains in this partnership with Lotus.”