2008 Lotus Elise Sc - Liquid Blue (rare Color & Low Miles!) on 2040-cars

Auto blog

This might be a Lotus SUV test mule

These photos could be our first look at the Lotus SUV in test mule form. The body on the chassis is clearly that of a Lynk and Co. 01 SUV, but the underpinnings are something different entirely. Perhaps the most telling bit of all is the location in which our spy shooter caught the vehicle. We're told that this was shot dangerously close to Lotus' headquarters in Hethel, England. Using a Lynk and Co. body to test the Lotus SUV makes sense when you take into account who owns both companies. Geely happens to own Lotus, Lynk and Co. and Volvo, so they're all under the same roof at this point. These spy photos appear to be hiding a chassis that doesn't exactly fit correctly under the body, though. The front fenders are far wider than they are on the 01, and the rear fenders also look like they've been messed with to fit the much larger rubber. It has a wider, more aggressive stance than the Lynk and Co. SUV, lending more evidence to this being a Lotus SUV test mule. We'd expect a Lotus SUV to handle as well as anything in the class, so all these things do make sense if that's what it is. As for what could be powering the British SUV, that's another story. This tester has yellow caution tape covering where the gas cap is on the 01 SUV, no visible exhaust and a big, yellow high voltage sticker on the windshield. All of that tells us it's most likely electrified in some form. We didn't have intel that the Lotus SUV would be electric previously, but there's every chance they could go down that road. The Lotus 130 hypercar is going to be all-electric. And Volvo sells plug-in hybrids now, so the tech could be borrowed from there, too. Of course, Volvo doesn't have the same priorities as Lotus does with weight reduction and handling, so don't consider anything a done deal quite yet. We can't actually confirm that the vehicle in question is a Lotus underneath, but hopefully more photos and information make their way to us soon. There's still a long way to go in the development process if Lotus is only testing on mules now, so look for plenty more to come on this vehicle.

Lotus hands Pastor Maldonado a new Evora S in Monaco

Being a Formula One driver has its privileges. First off, you get to drive F1 cars for a living. You get treated like royalty and fly around the world. And if you're lucky, you might get a supercar thrown at you once in a while. It all depends on which team you drive for.
Fernando Alonso, for example, has had countless Ferraris, Maseratis, Abarths and Jeeps thrown his way. Lewis Hamilton was a little disappointed not to get the keys to that rare McLaren F1 LM when he won the championship. But Pastor Maldonado just got his hands on a new Lotus Evora S.
Pastor who now, you ask? Pastor Maldonado. The first Venezuelan driver in F1, Maldonado won the GP2 title in 2010 then made the jump to F1, driving for Williams for the past three seasons, impressively winning the Spanish Grand Prix in 2012. Now he's at Lotus filling Kimi Raikkonen's seat, and took delivery of his white Evora - complete with 3.5-liter supercharged V6 and six-speed sequential gearbox - in Monte Carlo last weekend during the Monaco Grand Prix.

Lotus admits its fancy London shop is a waste of money

Piccadilly in London is one of the most expensive shopping streets in the world. And right by where they filmed that awesome scene from American Werewolf in London, Lotus has a showroom. I wandered in last week. Handmade suit, posh watch, smart shoes. But the lack of interest from the sales staff made me think I was wearing a Kimi "Leave me alone I know what I'm doing" T-shirt. To the cognoscenti it's a bit confused. There is no separation between the Lotus F1 team and Lotus cars. Even though a friend at Lotus F1 once told me that the team has a closer relationship with Microsoft than it does with Lotus Cars. What makes this especially strange is that the F1 stuff is front and centre: overpriced caps, T-shirts, and team gear, with the cars playing second fiddle. Yet this is a store paid for by Cars. You have to wonder what the shop is going to sell next year when the Enstone F1 team drops the Lotus name to become Renault. But that is nothing to the wondering you start to do when you speak to the staff. On a previous visit I'd asked about the relationship between Lotus F1 and Lotus Cars, and the sales staff insisted that they were one and the same. A short time after that I spoke to Lotus CEO Jean-Marc Gales at an event where he'd been the guest speaker. He told me that moves were underway to fix the problem and that they would soon have staff in the shop that knew about the cars. So last week's return visit was depressing. In the back there is an Exige and an Elise. I asked the difference and the girl suggested that we look it up on the internet. She took a business card, I made my excuses and left. Daft really I might not have bought a car but I was seriously tempted by the GBP20 carbon fibre pen. My local dealer, Hexagon, called and mailed, but what was really telling, and bloody impressive, was the call from Hethel. I vented my disappointment with the Piccadilly store, and the Lotus man explained. And impressed. Normally you'd get some dreadful company line about how the shop wasn't for people like me, that it was all deliberate to avoid scaring people off and welcome new blood to the brand. But instead he was honest. He told me that the shop was a folly. That it was one of Dany Bahar's many expensive ideas. He signed a ten-year lease on the shop at a million pounds a year and they can't afford to run it. They did train up some good people but, as you can't pay people rural Norfolk salaries and expect them to work in Piccadilly, they left.