Lotus SUV to be light, agile; make sports cars better

In an interview with Top Gear Magazine UK, Lotus CEO Jean-Marc Gales has divulged some new details about the company’s upcoming SUV, and apparently it’ll be quite a bit closer to Hethel’s “simplify, then add lightness” mantra than you might think.

“If Colin Chapman was alive I believe he would have done one,” he said – yes, really. “It will be the size of a Porsche Macan but only 1,600 kg, and will be the most agile and fastest of that class on a track. Lamborghini is doing a SUV like that in their segment, we can do it in our segment.

“It’s logical for us to make one in the Macan segment – the rest are all two tonnes, even a BMW X3. They take a normal car platform with big tyres and brakes and transmission. We will use a four-cylinder engine.”

That engine would reportedly be the existing supercharged Toyota 2ZZ-GE 1.8 litre four-cylinder engine from the Elise, although the publication notes that a diesel engine would be important for European buyers. “We’ll take 250 kg out, so we can have smaller brakes, we can use Evora seats,” Gales said.

Despite being destined to be built in China as part of a joint venture with Goldstar Heavy Industrial, the SUV is being “designed and engineered and prototyped at Hethel” – a prototype and business plan is required for a manufacturing licence grant in the Middle Kingdom. Chinese sales will start end-2019 or 2020, with exports viable if all goes well. “We have protected the package and technology for Europe,” Gales said.

“We are evaluating two full-scale design models at the moment. They are very sporty and they look very Lotus. They have a modern Lotus nose, and a hint of the 1974 four-seat Elite on the side. They look lightweight.”

Of course, for a mainstream SUV to be able to succeed, it must be entirely reliable and watertight, something Gales admits Lotus hasn’t traditionally aced. “[The Exige‘s door seals] drive me crazy,” he said as an example. “We have just hired a new chief engineer for body and closures. We are working with the suppliers to make those seals very differently. We have a new electrical chief too.”

These measures are claimed to have made a profound effect. “Our warranty costs are now just one-third of what they were two years ago,” Gales said. But the company also aims to make the SUV’s components modular, so they can be used in its sports cars as well. “We can use parts, such as climate control units, in the SUV which will be better for the next generation of sports cars.”

When asked if the use of a five-seater SUV’s air conditioner would make their two-seater sports cars heavier, Gales responds, “we could use two small ones in the SUV. We can use new instrument panel parts from the SUV in the sports cars. They won’t make the sports cars one gram heavier.”

Improvements in manufacturing, quality and distribution has seen deliveries skyrocket – the figure for the year to March 2015 is 2,015 units (nice), up 55% from the 1,296 cars handed to owners in the same period last year.

What’s more, the changes are helping Lotus churn out more new and improved sports cars faster than ever, even as it has just revealed the Evora 400 and 3-Eleven. “The [2017] Exige will be faster, and have bigger wheels and brakes, even though it has better air-conditioning and infotainment, and lower sills for easier entry,” Gales said.

The Elise will also see the fitment of a revised front clamshell, said to benefit from a cheaper but better manufacturing process. “There will be an Evora 400 Roadster, with twin carbon fibre roof panels that stow in the front and weigh just three kilograms each,” Gales added.

One last bit by Gales: “I also have a plan for a 4-Eleven in two years…” Going by that timeframe, can we expect to see a 7-Eleven by 2023 and a 9-Eleven in 2027?

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