2014 Lotus Elan History and New Products
Lotus started out building giant, killer, racing machines that captured the Formula One World Championship seven times. It then turned to producing small, spartan, agile-but-fragile sports cars, a business built largely with the original Elan roadster of the early 1960s, which partly inspired the Mazda MX-5 Miata more than two decades later.
But the cars Lotus is banking on for its future mark a sharp turn from founder Colin Chapman’s no-frills engineering philosophy, being much more upscale in technology, features, and pricing, as well as larger and heavier. The most Lotus-like are three mid-engine designs: an updated version of the 4-cylinder 2-seat Elise roadster; a V8-powered flagship called Esprit; and--our subject here--the Elan, which amounts to a slightly smaller, less-expensive Esprit with a force-fed V6. The other newcomers are front-engine designs that will take Lotus into the sports-luxury realm for the first time: the Elite hardtop-convertible and a stretched fixed-roof 4-door derivative called Eterne, Lotus’s answer to the Aston Martin Rapide, Audi A7, Mercedes-Benz CLS-Class, and Porsche Panamera. The Elan will be the second new-era Lotus to reach consumers. It’s due to arrive about six months after Esprit, with production starting in summer 2013 and sales commencing that fall. If this timing holds, the Elan will reach America as a 2014 model.
The 2014 Lotus Elan may be the most important member of Hethel’s planned quintet because it’s likely to have the broadest market appeal and thus be the biggest money-earner, especially in the U.S. It’s also significant as a replacement for the recently introduced mid-engine V6 Evora coupe. According to Motor Trend’s Horrell, “Lotus acknowledges that the Evora has failed to attract new fans from outside the brand, because it doesn’t have the required sense of luxury, and ingress/egress difficulty is often cited by consumers who go back to Porsche.” Even so, the “Evora will continue as long as there are buyers,” mainly because the Elan will have higher performance and a higher price tag to match--around $117,000 in today’s money, Lotus says.
Incidentally, the Evora’s slow sales start also reflects initial production glitches that delayed the critical U.S. launch to model-year 2010, more than 12 months after the car was announced. Interest has also been hurt by lack of an automatic-transmission option, but Lotus has corrected that by adding the Evora IPS--named for its Intelligent Precision Shift transmission--and a quicker manual-shift S version with 345 horsepower and 295 pound-feet of torque versus the base car’s 276 horses and 258 pound-feet.
But let’s get back to the 2014 Lotus Elan. It’s reportedly aimed at the Porsche 911 Carrera and Carrera S in price, performance, and personality, but some buyers may also compare it to the mid-engine Audi R8 and front-engine premium-sporty/performance cars like the Jaguar XKR, Mercedes-Benz SL63 AMG, and even the Chevrolet Corvette.
It replaces the mid-engine Evora and could thus be the most significant of five new models coming by mid-decade from Britain’s Lotus Cars. The 21st-century Elan promises performance and exclusivity at a decent price--if it actually sees the light of day.
What We Know About the 2014 Lotus Elan
Call it a case of the “mouse that roared.” We’re talking about the audacious recovery-and-growth plan unveiled by Britain’s Lotus Cars at the 2010 Paris Auto Salon, with a repeat announcement a few months later at Los Angeles.
In brief, Lotus intends to introduce no fewer than five clean-sheet cars between mid-2013 and mid-2015, including a first-ever mid-engine V6 Elan to replace today’s Evora. The objective: To become a serious sales-and-image rival for premium performance brands like Aston Martin, Ferrari, Jaguar, and Porsche. If the plan succeeds, Lotus will more than triple its yearly worldwide sales, soaring from some 2,400 units in 2009--including just 850 or so in the U.S.--to a projected 7,000-8,000. But that “if” is a big one, for reasons that include still-uncertain prospects for a global economic recovery and the fact that Lotus will be challenging strong, iconic brands in a high-dollar market where it has little prior experience.
Call it a case of the “mouse that roared.” We’re talking about the audacious recovery-and-growth plan unveiled by Britain’s Lotus Cars at the 2010 Paris Auto Salon, with a repeat announcement a few months later at Los Angeles.
In brief, Lotus intends to introduce no fewer than five clean-sheet cars between mid-2013 and mid-2015, including a first-ever mid-engine V6 Elan to replace today’s Evora. The objective: To become a serious sales-and-image rival for premium performance brands like Aston Martin, Ferrari, Jaguar, and Porsche. If the plan succeeds, Lotus will more than triple its yearly worldwide sales, soaring from some 2,400 units in 2009--including just 850 or so in the U.S.--to a projected 7,000-8,000. But that “if” is a big one, for reasons that include still-uncertain prospects for a global economic recovery and the fact that Lotus will be challenging strong, iconic brands in a high-dollar market where it has little prior experience.
At least funding will be no problem, thanks to a fresh $1.2 billion investment by Malaysia’s Proton Holdings Berhad, which bought Lotus in 1996 and has lost money on it every year since. According to Steve Cropley, editor-in-chief of Britain’s Autocar magazine, Proton decided “that it had only two stark options for Lotus’ future: to hold an immediate fire sale or develop the company to the extent of its potential. That was when [Proton] began talking to Dany Behar, then a sales and marketing chief at Ferrari…[The new-model plan] took ‘maybe three months to devise.’”
Behar, a Swiss native, took over as Group Lotus CEO in October 2009 at age 38. Group Lotus consists of Lotus Cars, the automaking division, and Lotus Engineering, a design and technology consultancy that has remained profitable. Both operations are headquartered at Hethel, northeast of London, near a former Royal Air Force base where sections of the runway have famously served as Lotus’ test track for over 40 years.
To help execute what he unabashedly calls the “Dany Behar plan,” the new CEO has recruited top-level talent from the very rivals whose growth and success he wants Lotus to emulate. Behar recognized Lotus’ ample expertise in engineering chassis and lightweight structures, but felt it needed help with styling, marketing, and quality control. Perhaps his most significant hires are Ferrari’s Donato Coco as design chief and Wolf Zimmerman, formerly of Mercedes-Benz’s AMG performance division, to head up vehicle engineering. This triumvirate is largely responsible for the five new models unveiled in concept form at Paris and L.A. The company has also shown a mockup of a small Scion iQ-style city car, but the prospects for that one are unclear.
In all, reports Motor Trend’s Paul Horrell, Behar has hired “23 senior people” in marketing and production, plus design and product development. He’s also secured an A-list group of advisors including Burkhard Goeschel, a one-time design and purchasing chief at BMW; Tom Purves, the recently retired CEO of Rolls-Royce and former CEO of BMW North America; and even Bob Lutz, the celebrated product guru at the “old” General Motors. Lutz’s hiring is ironic, in that GM owned Lotus from 1986 to 1993.
Behar, a Swiss native, took over as Group Lotus CEO in October 2009 at age 38. Group Lotus consists of Lotus Cars, the automaking division, and Lotus Engineering, a design and technology consultancy that has remained profitable. Both operations are headquartered at Hethel, northeast of London, near a former Royal Air Force base where sections of the runway have famously served as Lotus’ test track for over 40 years.
To help execute what he unabashedly calls the “Dany Behar plan,” the new CEO has recruited top-level talent from the very rivals whose growth and success he wants Lotus to emulate. Behar recognized Lotus’ ample expertise in engineering chassis and lightweight structures, but felt it needed help with styling, marketing, and quality control. Perhaps his most significant hires are Ferrari’s Donato Coco as design chief and Wolf Zimmerman, formerly of Mercedes-Benz’s AMG performance division, to head up vehicle engineering. This triumvirate is largely responsible for the five new models unveiled in concept form at Paris and L.A. The company has also shown a mockup of a small Scion iQ-style city car, but the prospects for that one are unclear.
In all, reports Motor Trend’s Paul Horrell, Behar has hired “23 senior people” in marketing and production, plus design and product development. He’s also secured an A-list group of advisors including Burkhard Goeschel, a one-time design and purchasing chief at BMW; Tom Purves, the recently retired CEO of Rolls-Royce and former CEO of BMW North America; and even Bob Lutz, the celebrated product guru at the “old” General Motors. Lutz’s hiring is ironic, in that GM owned Lotus from 1986 to 1993.
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