Lotus Esprit Delayed; Will Get In-House V8, Shocking Price Tag
The new Esprit will make it to market, but not as early as Lotus had hoped. Speaking at the launch of the new Evora S model in San Jose, Lotus Cars USA PR boss Kevin Smith confirmed that due to a decision by Lotus to produce its own engine for the car, it won’t make it to market until late 2013 or even early 2014.
“The cars shown at the Paris Auto Show with the Lexus IS-F V8 will get our own V8 engine,” said Smith. Those models include the Esprit, as well as the even more exotic Elite. Smith also confirmed that development of the in-house V8 engine was already underway, and indicated that other engines are a possibility.
Making additional remarks, Smith let slip details of just how much Lotus expects to charge for these new models, and it’s a huge increase from the $76,000 Evora S. Speaking generally, he said that, “cars in the $170,000 to $200,000 range should have their own engine in them.” No clarification was given about the projected price and while $170K is certainly a huge bump over the Porsche 911 Turbo, it would be significantly less than some of the Italian exotics the Esprit would be targeted at as well.
Details about the new V8 have not been released, but there’s a strong chance it will be available with a dual-clutch transmission. “We’d like to do a manual and a dual-clutch transmission for the Esprit and now that we’re dong our own engines there’s a better chance,” said Smith. Lotus has filed a patent for a 7-speed dual-clutch unit already, so look for that to arrive in the Esprit in just over two year’s time.
GALLERY: Lotus Esprit
With AutoGuide from its launch, Colum previously acted as Editor-in-Chief of Modified Luxury & Exotics magazine where he became a certifiable car snob driving supercars like the Koenigsegg CCX and racing down the autobahn in anything over 500 hp. He has won numerous automotive journalism awards including the Best Video Journalism Award in 2014 and 2015 from the Automotive Journalists Association of Canada (AJAC). Colum founded Geared Content Studios, VerticalScope's in-house branded content division and works to find ways to integrate brands organically into content.
More by Colum Wood
Comments
Join the conversation
I personally don't think it's a good move for Lotus to build their own engine for the new Esprit. The only way I would aspire to buy one is if it had the Toyota drive line in it. The IS-F V8 is nice, but the LF-A V10 is even better. I think Lotus is missing the mark and is not understanding their customer base very well. Lotus already has their competitors beat in terms of driving dynamics. In order to get to the level of prestige that the others have; the interior, quality, and attention to detail need to be brought to the next level. I own an Elise and an Exige S so I know the quirks very well. I often joke that everything around the Toyota power train is prone to failure... Toyota has literally millions of dollars in the R&D, tooling, and design for manufacturing built into each one of their engines. Lotus hoping to match that level of quality and consistency on a shoe-string budget is just asking for trouble :(
i think that the new team at lotus have their heads buried in the proverbial sand my elise a/c was horrible the defroster worse and the non elec mirrors a nuisance but the fun to drive factor unmatched but at 170,000 in this economy ithink they will be chapter 11 in no time . just improve the elise go for better int and a better sealing top but not a ferrari or gold chaim lambo waana be