The 2011 Lotus Elise that was unveiled in Geneva earlier this year powered by Toyota’s new Valvematic engines will continue to soldier on until 2015 where it will be replaced with the above model – a new Elise that’s said to have ‘grown up’.
It’s certainly grown heavier – at the preliminary 1,095kg quoted curb weight that’s about 200kg heavier than the current Elise which weighs only about 900kg depending on trim level. The new Elise promises to be much more cosseting to its driver though – less awkward to get in ad get out – the press release by Lotus specifically says no more acrobatics!
“The Elise you can buy now is still a fantastic car, make no mistake, Lotus remain very proud of it, but this is a natural progression for us moving forward. The Elise 2015 will also be class-leading in terms of performance and efficiency but it will do more than that it will take the Elise model to the forefront of its class across the board,” said Lotus CEO Dany Bahar.
To push around the extra weight, the Elise’s engine has grown to a 2.0 litre force inducted motor making 320 PS and 330Nm of torque. It will remain mid-engined and rear wheel driven like the current Elise, and the spec sheet even lists an optional Dual Clutch Transmission, taking the burden of shifting off the driver to help him focus more on the actual corners.
I think it would make sense if once this new Elise is launched, Lotus continued to offer the Elise in its current form as some kind of “Elise Classic” for those who really still want a machine minimum mobile.
Look after the jump for a full photo gallery of both live and press photos as well as a video and the full press release/preliminary specs sheet.
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Agree with you Paul. The way I see it, Current Lotus Elise is a great replacement for Lotus 7. I mean, make the current Elise THE Lotus 7 of the 21st century.
lotus totally change their design language despite heritage of Colin Chapman philosophy
the could risky change everything in grip of eye, other comment design like Lamborghini and mclaren fuss up, thing getting confuse since their face look similar like VW and Audi .
bring here, bring here… under rm100k!!.. ahh in my dream..
Oh Yeah baby….
With an indicative price of £35 000, could we possibly be looking at about RM 250, 000 with the tax exemptions from Proton?
I think Lotus may be overreaching themselves in this reinvention of their image. A bit too aggressive all at once? 9 months to think up 5 cars is a lot by any measure. The Esprit and Elise are nice and all but the other three make them seem desperate but I guess they do need to increase sales figures to pay for the research and overhead.
Whatever it is, I hope Proton makes good use of Lotus technology without tainting the Lotus badge with faulty window winders and such. Lotus handling is good, how about some lotus power to follow?
lotus is powered by TOYOTA engine, if proton reli use it, sure u guys wil bash it gaogao,..
That means Lotus is really serious to secure their position at par with other famous European exotic carmakers like Ferrari and Porsche. It may seem to be a risky gamble in terms of financial, but at least we know that it is more than a worthy gamble. All the best to Dany Bahar, Lotus and Proton.
hope lotus can do well sale this model with the rest all 5 same face car…
Nice butt ..
Future elise is no more a basic sport car… I think this car will kick z4, TT even cayman in the ass.
But i will miss the current elise exterior…they should keep the core elise design such as those “hole” in the front hood and circle rear light… IMHO Elise is also a legandary model of lotus…
Hope that when this 2015 Lotus Elise is launched, the PDRM will use a fleet of these new Elise for high-speed pursuit, as its engine alone can easily tapau the current police Evo engine. It will surely be a money-wise purchase.
With only two seats,how can they bring the criminal to the police station.lol
Sorry to say but your question might be a stupid one. Deploy sports cars to capture the criminals like an eagle capturing its prey, and then just use normal patrol cars to take them to the police station. The cops never do their job alone. Countries like UK and Australia use Lotus Elises for high-speed pursuits.
Who say this car doesn’t have any original Lotus design,the ‘high butt’ is still there and so the diffuser style.
I’m not sure about the tail lights though. In my opinion, it should feature double round tail lights to maintain links with it’s predecessor, bcause that is one recognizable trademark of the Elise model, which could be one of the appealing points to the customers. I’m quite surprised Lotus designers overlooked that. But overall great design from Lotus.
the new Lotuses all look like nurse sharks…