In an interview given to Autocar UK, Lotus CEO Jean-Marc Gales has revealed that an updated Lotus Evora is set to be unveiled at next March’s Geneva show. Besides changes inside and out, the sports car will weigh less and pack 15% more power.
Now, the standard Evora does 280 PS – 15% up on that is 322 PS, so there’s your ballpark figure. There should be a more hardcore Cup version in the future too, with even more power and even less heft, Gales said.
The Evora is now six years of age, having debuted at the 2008 British International Motor Show. Based on an all-new platform, it launched in Malaysia in 2010, and there have been supercharged S models, automatic IPS models and countless racing editions.
Recently it emerged that due to stringent airbag requirements, the Evora would not be sold in the US for the 2015 model year. The updated car Gales mentioned could very well address this. Russell Carr, who was responsible for the Evora’s design, was re-appointed as design head last month, so this would be very familiar territory for him.
Meanwhile, Gales told Autocar UK that Lotus is recovering, fortified with a “logic-based” revival plan that will boost sales and dealer numbers, as well as the performance, practicality and desirability of the models.
“When I arrived six months ago we had 1,200 people making 1,200 cars a year. We could not have survived like that,” the ex-PSA head told the publication. “Now we are 900 people, and this year we will make around 2,000 cars. Next year the figure should be 3,000 cars, then 3,000 for several more years. This will change the equation completely.”
Jean-Marc Gales (left) and Aslam Farikullah
Gales said the Hethel-based company could learn from specialist car makers such as Porsche, and expand into new segments like four-door models and crossovers.
He cited Porsche’s success with creating the Cayenne out of the VW Touareg, and said that Lotus could, for instance, use a Proton body to develop an own-design SUV for south-east Asian markets, where demand is highest. However, Gales stressed that the future of the company also depends on improving the existing cars and business.
“We won’t have the funds to build all-new cars in the next few years,” the 51-year old said. “In any case our existing platforms have plenty of potential.”
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Why we don’t put fellow Malaysian at top post CEO in Lotus? Why pay white man so much of money?
Don’t we have competent CEO’s in Malaysia or is Proton indirectly saying that Malaysian CEOs and Malaysians generally have no brains?
Looks like Proton think Malaysians have no brains. Proton owns Lotus and we should be sending fellow Malaysians to man the company.
How many Malaysians are there in Lotus UK? If there aren’t many, why did we even buy it? We bought it for transfer of technology and to train our people.
Looks like all the badges on Proton cars saying “engineered by Lotus” seems to be a sham and bluff and just to create a syiok sendiri effect.
Woah, why so racist?
Lotus needs more than a competent CEO at the moment. It needs a brilliant CEO that can realize a turnaround. Someone to stir the waters and shake the company to its foundations to make the company live again. Mr. Gales holds quite a track record in his career and perhaps that’s why they chose him. We’ll see where they go from here…he’s already made quite a stir within the company.
Proton Lotus Bla bla bla…Settle the previous bank loan 1 billion first okay.
If still fail, don’t try to ask money from EPF or Felda.
when put in boleh people u said crony la, not qualify la.. then say why not follow hyundai la taking foreigner as ceo n bla bla…
If you read past comments on proton articles, some people said proton should have mat salleh management.
There are malaysians in Lotus. My friend for example worked with lotus after graduation. He didn’t need to apply for the job, somehow Lotus chased him for the job.
I would rather they come out with the 5 concepts that were launched during Danny Bahar’s time, which had the 4-door Eterne. Now they want to spend more money to R&D for a crossover, when they claim the company is “not generating profit”.
Too much happening, but non are realized.
Don’t worry, it is a matte rof time Lotus will be sold for 1 EURO. That is how the Proton brains work. they buy Mat Salleh companies for few hundred million pounds but sell 1 EURO after few years.
Oh by the way, the guy who bought the Motorbike company for 1 EURO from Proton recently sold it for few hundred million ringgit.
This is the kind of brains we have at Proton. Now you know why Proton is bleeding money and living of our LHDN money
I don’t what to say since Donato Coco left the company and replaced by Russel Carr, I am doubt the new Evora’s design will appeal potential customers. We should noticed that the improving Lotus sales was due to new design of Elise & Exige. We have seen failure of Europa which was designed by Russel Carr (less than 1000 units sold!!). However, we should not doubt Russel Carr’s technical knowledge which has produced an award winnings Evora.
1st 4 model will be Lotus Ethos.
what cant we have them running proton?
The Elise & Exige’s interior (e.g the cockpit area) must be upgraded as well with more luxurious & high tech features. There are potential customers who are tempted by the exterior design & performance of both models, but put off by the very spartan & outdated cockpit. At least it should be brought to the same level as the latest Evora. And somehow, I think the Lotus SUV plan (same like the recently announced Alfa Romeo SUV plan), is a bit absurd. For me Lotus as a brand is more like Ferrari or Mclaren, it’s got a certain emotion and passion more associated with normal cars, unlike German brands which are linked to industrialization image, doing everything & out to conquer the world. It’s like hearing a plan for Ferrari SUV or Jaguar SUV..totally absurd..
Lotus should just stick to normal cars sportscar, sedan, coupe or hatch..as long as not SUVs..
If you didn’t notice in the article, they’re throwing emotive reasoning out the window in favor of logic-based decision making. It’s quite common knowledge now that the SUV market is fast expanding and seems to have a lot of further growth potential. It’ll make sense for certain automakers to cash in on that while they are able (frankly, I don’t think the growth will last indefinitely but we won’t know when it will taper off and end). Question is, can they make an SUV that is Lotus enough to not feel like they’ve forsaken their identity? The CEO seems to be drawing at least some inspiration from Porsche even though they said that they’re not trying to become another Porsche. It’ll be interesting to see how this develops.
Proton (and Lotus) was once almost a pioneer in the sports crossover segment by introducing the Proton MSX (Lotus APX. But it was originally a Proton). It’s light and could outrun a Cayenne Turbo S despite having only 300hp (Proton NEF V6 supercharged engine). But they had to cancel it because they didn’t have the balls to take huge risk for a new segment.
Now with Proton’s modular HPF chassis, and new techs that Proton and Lotus have nowadays, I could not see why they can’t do that again. Just don’t ruin it with a freaking CVT.
Hmm…are you referring to the Iriz chassis as the modular HPF chassis? One of Proton’s chiefs said that it isn’t a modular chassis in the sense of the VW’s MQB or Volvo’s SPA. It’s just engineered to be able to be able to fit in various drivetrain components. The other HPF chassis Proton has would be the Preve/SuprimaS chassis, so they should be able to go up to the C-segment only if they limit themselves to using what Proton has now. We don’t know whether Honda allows them to use the previous-gen Accord’s platform for anything else other than the next-gen Perdana.
Too many if’s to say anything for certain. Everything’s still up in the air now. I didn’t say that they can’t do it. The real question would be “would it be successful once they do it?” and “would people be able to accept it?”
Their future is rather uncertain. (I’m being realistic here)
Oh and, thanks for pointing me to the Proton MSX. Quite interesting. It has an “aluminum adaptable platform”, whatever that is supposed to mean. Hmm…
Eagerly waiting for spy shots…thy have to have more models bcos its hard to survive in such a niche sector…
After all the rosy outlook he says that Lotus has
no funds to launch newer models.
No money no talk …. u are competing in
a premium market and not a budget car company
where branding and marketing plays an important
role in your cars.
If you cannot get the proper funding I strongly
suggest that Toyota be offered an equity stake.
What’s wrong when Lotus is already using a V6 Toyota engine.
Lotus still using Toyota engine, not Proton engine. Why? CamPro not reliable?
of coz proton cant give u that much output. nothing in proton comes close to the 3.5 v6. if proton engines go up that much in HP, i cant imagine how it will blow up
kau memang ..BENG ONG..