1978 Lotus Esprit Base Coupe 2-door 2.0l on 2040-cars

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Lotus Type 133 sedan caught testing in China

Before the Lotus Eletre battery-electric SUV debuted in March, Chinese car spotters snapped photos of prototypes in testing. The same has happened again with the Lotus codenamed Type 133. An image of the tester parked along a curb showed up on the Chinese site Weibo, with a camouflaged Eletre in the background left and an uncamouflaged Eletre parked opposite. The Type 133 is a four-door sedan being developed as a driver's car, benchmarked against and planning to take on the Porsche Taycan as well as the Audi E-Tron GT. Slated for a reveal next year, recent Lotus trademark applications for the names Envya and Etude lead watchers to believe the Type 133 will adopt one of those monikers for its debut in March, Envya getting the short odds. Lotus SVP of design Peter Horbury said the 133 wouldn't be just a smaller Eletre, we'll need to wait until the covers come off to know the truth of it. What we can tell for now is that the sedan doesn't look far off the kind of four-door we'd have expected from Lotus if the English maker had got into family sedans before the electric age. Peeking through the window, the driver's area gives off the same vibes as in the Eletre thanks to a squared steering wheel and minimalist instrument panel. An earlier spy shot picked up by Car News China shows a rear door with pillarless window. The biggest surprise is how long it looks. Some of that length could be a trick of the angle and the camera lens; even so, this won't be a wallflower. And why should it be? Said to sit on the same Electric Premium Architecture (EPA) as the Eletre — a derivative of parent company Geely's Sustainable Experience Architecture (SEA) that supports the Polestar 4 and the new Smart range — we expect overlap in powertrain possibilities. That could mean an entry-level battery pack of 92 kilowatt-hours juicing a dual-motor drivetrain with 595 horsepower and 524 pound-feet of torque, and a 120-kWh pack powering four motors producing 893 hp and 727 lb-ft. That latter model should get the Type 133 from standstill to 62 miles per hour in under 3 seconds. After the sedan debuts, the Type 134 SUV isn't anticipated until 2025, a challenger to the Porsche Macan EV. The following year, Lotus returns to its roots with the Type 135 sports car that will usher the current Emira into retirement. Related video:

Lotus bankruptcy case dismissed in UK

Times have not been easy for Lotus lately, so when its name came up on a list of companies scheduled for a liquidation court, it seemed like the end could be near for the fabled British builder of lightweight sports cars. As it turns out, Lotus was on the Companies Court Winding Up list in the UK due to a contractual dispute with a supplier, and the High Court has since dismissed the case.
According to Autocar, Lotus and the supplier actually resolved their issue earlier in the year, but the process couldn't be stopped until seen by a judge. The report says that the case was initiated when Group Lotus failed to pay some of its debts, which is probably a fair indication that Lotus is far from out of the weeds in regards to its financial difficulties.

Lotus Exige S Roadster coming this summer to a circuit near you

We haven't heard much about the Lotus Exige S Roadster since we first saw it at the Geneva Motor Show last year, but Lotus is now confirming the car will go on sale this summer. Of course, unless anything has changed since the car was introduced, Lotus' "ultimate roadster" will still not be coming to the US.
Lotus has released a new video showing its 345-horsepower roadster in action, and while it doesn't even show that much of the car, you can check out our live images of the Exige S Roadster in our gallery. The video, which looks like a knockoff of a Universal Studios movie trailer, is posted below.