The Next Lotus Elise Will Be Here In 2020

Lotus boss Jean-Marc Gales has dropped a few hints about what we can expect from the next Elise

26 Jul 2016

The Next Lotus Elise Will Be Here In 2020

Having struggled in the aftermath of the disastrous, long since cancelled Danny Bahar five car plan, things are looking up at Lotus. The Norfolk sports car company is on track to make a profit in 2017, and if that happens it’ll be the first time the company has been in the black for 20 years.

The best news of all, though? A few years after that, we should be getting an all-new Elise. Speaking to Autocar, Lotus CEO Jean-Marc Gales said that the new Elise will be “ready in 2020,” by which point a new version will be well overdue - the current ‘Series 3’ model is already five years old and rides on a platform derived from the 20-year-old Series 1.

Gales didn’t reveal a whole lot else, but did drop a few hints about what the next Elise might be like. “We have invested a lot in the Toyota relationship and it is really successful,” was just one of the warm, cuddly things he directed at Toyota, so another powerplant from the Japanese manufacturer seems likely. Great steering feedback - a Lotus trademark - should continue too, with Gales stating: “We have steering that nobody else has matched…That is part of our company and we will never do anything that disrupts that.”

The current Lotus Elise has been around since 2011, and won't be replaced until 2020 — The current Lotus Elise has been around since 2011, and won't be replaced…

It’ll need to be a little wider than the current car to give room for better side impact protection plus side-mounted airbags, as it’ll need to comply with US crash regulations. Yep, this’ll be a Lotus you can buy both sides of the pond.

Whether or not Lotus can add all this extra stuff while keeping the weight under a tonne, we’ll have to wait and see. But if Autocar’s speculative render (top of page) turns out to be on the money, the added width will make it look jolly tasty.

Growing up on a diet of World Rally Championship highlights and lengthy Gran Turismo 2 sessions, a life in cars was as good as inevitable for Matt.

Comments

I’m like this:

Only if they go the P1 route and use “hybrid” technology to make it insane.

AmI the only one who won’t mind if it is a hybrid?

corvette spider mini?

Lotus, please.

“…to give room for better side impact protection plus side-mounted airbags, as it’ll need to comply with US crash regulations”. Aborted from the get go by regulations.

Maybe they can invest a bit more money, and sell a “wide version” with the US-specs and the side-protection, and a “standard” without all that.

I really hope that they stay with the old Elise concept: a small no-BS sports car for half the price of a 911, intact spinal discs are optional. Everything heavier than 950 kg isn’t an Elise and a hybrid just won’t fit to a car like this. But then again, it’s Lotus. They know what they’re doing.