Lotus farewells three models

Lotus has commemorated the last of its Elise, Exige and Evora sports cars.

The three models were photographed on-site on December 22 with many of the marque’s team members who contributed to the design, engineering, assembly and sales of the vehicles.

Between these product lines and over the course of 26 years, 51,738 units will have come off the production line. Combined, they represent almost half of the total production of Lotus in its 73-year history. 

In addition, 9,715 sports cars were built for Lotus’ third-party clients, including General Motors and Tesla.

From 1996 to 2000, the first-generation Elise and Exige were built in a small assembly hall at Hethel in the east of England alongside the Lotus Esprit. 

The current assembly lines, which were installed in 2000, will be dismantled and replaced with all-new facilities in support of the all-new Emira factory. 

Full Emira production begins in the spring when prototype and test phases under way are completed, taking Lotus sports-car production into a high-tech and semi-automated era, and increasing capacity up to 5,000 units per year on a single-shift pattern.

The last examples of the Elise, Exige and Evora are reserved for Lotus’ growing heritage collection.

Joining the collection will be the last Elise, a Sport 240 Final Edition finished in yellow and the last of 35,124 cars. 

These are the last Exige, a Cup 430 Final Edition in Heritage Racing Green – number 10,497, and the last Evora – a GT430 Sport finished in dark metallic grey and the last of a production run of 6,117.

The Elise and Exige are built around Lotus’ small car platform. On the same platform, and also manufactured by the company at Hethel were the Opel Speedster / Vauxhall VX220 with 7,200 units built between 2000 and 2005, and the Tesla Roadster – 2,515 were built between 2007 and 2012. 

Including the Lotus 340R, Europa, 2-Eleven and 3-Eleven, this brings the total Lotus small-car platform production volumes to 56,618.

Matt Windle, managing director of Lotus Cars, says: “As we say farewell to the last few cars, we look forward to the Emira and Evija in the all-new factories at Hethel and sub-assembly facilities in Norwich, which introduce greater efficiencies and automation, higher quality and flexibility.”

Russell Carr, design director, adds: “These iconic cars have not only played a huge role in Lotus’ 73-year history, but have also been ever-present in my daily life.

“Together with the Lotus design team, I have lived and breathed these cars for more than 26 years. We will miss them.”

The elder of the “3Es” trio, the Elise, has been part of the automotive landscape for more than 25 years. 

Next out of the stable is the Emira, the critically acclaimed new mid-engineered sports car from Lotus.  Launched last July at Hethel and on a world tour ever since, it’s the last petrol-powered car from the marque. 

Joining the first electric Lotus – the Evija hypercar and the most powerful production car in the world – will be the all-electric Type 132, the brand’s first SUV, which will be revealed to the world in the spring.