El Lotus emira is the The latest sports car with a combustion engine that has developed the Hethel's house. Gasoline runs through its “veins” and the engines that use it do not have any type of electrification. The brand’s objective was to “hook” the most purists and then open the doors to the world of electrification. The problem has been that electric sports cars do not arouse the slightest interest among customers and the brand has “fallen”…
Yes, sales of the lotus eletre y Lotus Evija They are not what they had planned. In the case of the second one, it could even be understood because it is a battery-powered supercar that has an exorbitant price. But in the first case, it does not make sense because it is a large, sporty SUV that customers like so much. For all this, the brand has decided to delay its plans to go electric beyond 2028 and this also affects the Emira…
The Lotus Emira could finally adopt a hybrid powertrain to be more frugal and less polluting…
In case you had forgotten, the Emira is powered by two engines. On one side we have a 2.0-liter i4 turbo engine with 400 hp of power which comes directly from the AMG division of Mercedes-Benz. The second mechanical option corresponds to a 1.8 L engine 3.5 liter supercharged V6 from Toyota with a power of 360 hp. As for transmissions, there are several types, but all have front-wheel drive…
However, if we take into account that both engines are "tuned" by Lotus, it is understandable that the English company and its managers are very concerned about their performance. So, in view of the complicated situation, their short-term future depends on see how they evolve their technique to adapt it to electrificationAnd this is where various options are being considered, according to several sources, by the top management of Lotus and its parent company Geely.
According to Dan Balmer, Lotus' new CEO, he told his colleagues at Autocar about a possible hybrid Emira…
«In today's world, 'never say never' is the rule, because we have to be open-minded and understand what the market wants and also what technology is available to us at that time. Therefore, The potential for hybrid powertrains is there, as is the potential for all-electric platforms. It's just a question of what technology is available for the attributes we specify in a Lotus."
Maybe you didn't know it but The Emira was to have a very limited life cycle. It is a transitional model that the brand was going to "eliminate" from its range in 2027. Then its 135% electric replacement should arrive, which has the internal development name Type XNUMX. However, given the drop in sales of this type of vehicle in all major markets, they have had to "backtrack" and think about what The Emira should extend its life cycle…
The key is to choose what type of electrification should come to the Lotus range…
And for it What better than to make it hybrid? So, as long as customers don't want pure electrics, they can continue selling them while "testing customers" to see if they are doing things right or not. The key is choosing what type of electrification, although in this case it would be simple. Yes, because both the engine and the car are very powerful. 2.0 Turbo by AMG such as 3.5 V6 from Toyota They are part of hybrid systems that their respective brands are already selling.
So it would be "as simple" as commission their suppliers to supply them with the hybrid system as is. The job for the engineers at Hethel would be to fine-tune them just the way they like them. The aim with this move would be to adapt both systems to the level of sportiness that their models require. And not only that, they would have to see how to combine them to reduce the weight that is the hallmark of Lotus cars.
We will have to be patient because Lotus' new CEO does not deny the idea and the Emira, as things stand, it still has a lot of commercial life left… Patience…
Source - Coach
Images | Lotus
