Bahar also told UK magazine Autocar that Lotus is building its own V8 instead of using Toyota’s unit from the Lexus IS-F, as research from the Paris Motor Show floor concerning the new Esprit revealed that customers were unwilling to pay the price for a $100,000+ supercar powered by a Toyota engine.
The new Esprit will be launched, if everything goes according to plan, in 2013. The new engine, according to Wolf Zimmerman who heads the engineering department, is 40% smaller than the Toyota’s, solving packaging problems. Zimmerman also added that it could form the basis for a new four-cylinder unit, being effectively one bank of the V8, to power smaller models in the range such as the new Elise and Exige.
Bahar also confirmed that the Ethos city car will indeed enter production, selling as a Lotus small-volume luxury small car, probably as a pure EV or a hybrid, in Europe and as a more affordable Proton with conventional internal combustion engines in Asia.
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