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Lotus responds to rumors of demise, promises 2016 MY Evora

It's not been a great week for Lotus. Seven days ago, the UK-based automaker laid off a quarter of its workforce, terminating "up to 325 jobs." And then, just a few days ago, it was reported that the company would be ending US sales of its well-received Evora due to the expiration of an airbag exemption. The Evora is the only vehicle Lotus sells in the US, meaning its end effectively removes the brand from the market.
That was apparently a bridge too far, though, as the company has issued defiant statement, claiming it'll be back, in both the US and Canada, for model year 2016, with an air-bag compliant Evora.
"I know that this will be welcome news to our thousands of owners and fans in North America, but the reality is that there was never any intention to leave. The North American market is vitally important for us and we intend to expand our dealer network and grow our sales volumes in the future," Jean-Marc Gales, CEO of Group Lotus said in a statement. "I would like to thank our fantastic Lotus following for their support over the years and remind them that we are working on many exciting products for the future. We will continue to explore our core values on how to make a sports car better by making it faster, lighter and maintain the pure driving experience."

Renault paid GBP1 to buy back its F1 team

Running a Formula One team is anything but cheap and straightforward, but it didn't cost Renault much to reacquire the Lotus team from Genii Capital. In fact, according to the latest reports, the French automaker paid just GBP1 – less than a buck fifty – for the privilege. Still, the process was deeply complicated. The reason Renault was able to get it so cheap is because the team was deeply in debt, part of which Renault will now assume. Less than a year ago, the team was said to be nearly $200 million in the red, and just a few months ago Renault came to its rescue to pay a $4 million tax bill to the British government. Under the terms of the new deal, Renault will assume the debt that the team's previous owners had accrued, but will be spared the nearly $150 million which its stakeholders loaned to the team. The history of the outfit based in Enstone dates back to 1981 when it was founded as Toleman Motorsport. French fashion giant Benetton bought the team in 1985, which in turn sold it to Renault in 2000. A decade later, after two world championship titles, Renault began stepping back its involvement in the team and gradually transferred ownership to investment firm Genii Capital, which has run it ever since under the Lotus name that it secured from the automaker under contract until 2017. Unable to fund a competitive team, Genii has now sold the team back to Renault, but the financial intricacies of the deal are far from straightforward. To start with, Genii and its subsidiary Gravity Motorsports (the team's parent company) didn't hold all the shares in the operation, so it bought back over 6 million shares from Whiterock Alliance to add to its own 60 million shares. The vast majority of those shares were then transferred (for that princely sum of GBP1) to Gringy (UK) Ltd, the shell company that technically owned the team in its Benetton days. Gringy (a wholly owned subsidiary of Renault) will hold a 90-percent stake in the team, with the last 10 percent remaining in Genii's hands and those of its investors. In the process, the outfit will now rejoin the likes of Ferrari and Mercedes among the F1 teams developing their own powertrains. Related Video: News Source: Motorsport.comImage Credit: Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP/Getty Earnings/Financials Motorsports Lotus Renault F1 genii capital

Lotus reveals an even lighter version of the Elise Cup 250

For an automaker with very few resources, Lotus manages to keep things relatively fresh. The new Evora 400 is a blast to drive, even if it is just a heavily revised version of the car that debuted in 2009. The current Lotus Elise debuted back in 2010, and though it may have departed from our shores, Lotus keeps customers worldwide happy with a plethora of new variants. The latest model is the lightweight Lotus Elise Cup 250. Now, this isn't the same Elise Cup 250 that debuted last year, though the two cars are very, very similar. The main difference is weight, as is typical with a Lotus. Colin Chapman's tried and true saying, simplify and add lightness, is still true here. The new model weighs just 1,895 pounds, or 1,948 without the lightweight package. Last year's Elise Cup 250 was already quite svelte at 2,053 pounds. While you may think that shaving that much weight from an already light car must be the result of black magic or a localized black hole, the truth is far more simple. The Elise Cup 250 makes extensive use of carbon fiber, titanium, and aluminum for components like the bodywork, exhaust, and wheels. The rear window is plastic instead of glass, and the standard lead-acid battery is replaced with a lithium-ion battery. The rest of the car remains mostly unchanged. The car is propelled by a 243-horsepower supercharged 1.8-liter inline four. It can hit 60 mph in just 3.9 seconds, quicker than the more powerful Evora 400. There's plenty of aero to keep the car planted, but it's not a pure track car like the Exige. The Elise Cup 250 still comes with a full interior with a stereo, though there's no mention of cupholders. As exciting as all this may be, the Elise Cup 250 won't be coming to the US. Unfortunately, airbags and crash structures all add weight. For everyone else, the Elise Cup 250 is at dealers now. Related Video: Featured Gallery Lotus Elise Cup 250 News Source: Lotus Lotus Lightweight Vehicles Performance