New Lotus Sports Car Series Confirmed

[Julian73]

Claim is an release at GFoS

[LotusLeftLotusRight]

6 hours ago, Julian73 said:

Claim is an release at GFoS

Keep up at the back. That nugget of information was posted on the Rumour Mill thread by chassis #1 customer Karl, tentatively back on 12 February and then confirmed on 25 February.

[Bibs]

[exeterjeep]

Bit of a teaser over the powertrain options, and just the mules been driven,  it will be great to see it in the flesh..

[Bee]

Now that we're already down to the last few brand-new Lotus cars for sale, we'll probably fairly soon be at the point where there are no brand-new Lotus cars for sale - and a wait until 2022 until the Type 131 graces dealer forecourts.

 

I wonder what kind of marketing Lotus will employ to plug the gap... Goodwood (8-11th July) is not so very far away so I am expecting a few teases to come before then, and hopefully some development diary-esque videos, once the cat is out of the bag.  I can only assume that Evija coverage will also help keep Lotus in the public eye. What I am really wondering, however, is 'who' the Type 131 will be aimed at, and thus what kind of advertising/marketing we will see.

 

Will we see them try to appeal equally to existing fans and to those whom would not have seriously entertained buying a Lotus before, or do they go all-out for the new buyers and rely on brand-loyalty from the faithful. I would imagine that in the year to come, we are going to get a good idea of how/where they intend to position themselves for the decade to come... 

 

Interesting times...

[Barrykearley]

19 minutes ago, Bee said:

who' the Type 131 will be aimed at

Hopefully us skint middle aged slightly balding midlife crisis ones whom have a spare kidney 🤪

[pete]

Not the overpaid under worked electricians then

[TdM]

It's going to be a very interesting car to market. Everyone including Lotus are going all electric and Lotus want to sell a cross-over etc. in their next batch of cars, the 131 doesn't sound like it fits with any of these but if they just release a car aimed at the Lotus community, they will likely get approximately the same sales response as before and not be a good 'bridge' for the new cars either.

Small light and well engineered doesn't sell that well (see: Alpine, yes no manual here but really proof of sales vs what people say on forums proves it doesn't make much difference) directly fighting the Cayman/911 is not easy because people default to Porsche no matter what you produce (See: Practically everything else that has come out in that segment) and you aren't producing an electric car which would get the green sports car vote... Probably needs a couple of well designed turbos to make up the poke that a hybrid will have over this car.

What body will it have? I suspect composite puts some people off as it's not as easy to fix... CF may be too expensive and has the same/worse repair issues.

I look forward to seeing what they produce but it's a tough market for a non-hybrid V6 over the next couple of years I think.

That looks like a very negative post, but it's worth considering the scale of the task they have for marketing/winning 'normal' people around!

[C8RKH]

So the 131 is the last ICE car before Lotus goes all electric.  That is very interesting to hear and brave to go straight to all electric with no hybrid "bridging" phase.

I'm hoping that the 131 will be around for circa 5 years in production. Then I guess a gradual shift to all electric models.  Makes sense I suppose.

[tim_marra]

Lotus would never do hybrid as sometimes it does nothing of benefit. Lotus usually have components doing more than one job where possible. Doing none is a no no.

[Barrykearley]

Turbos.... please let’s see some twin turbos.

1 hour ago, C8RKH said:

That is very interesting to hear and brave to go straight to all electric with no hybrid "bridging" phase.

Maybe not so daft ....

https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-autos-europe-regulations-insight-idUKKBN2BZ0BO

[Giniw]

6 hours ago, tim_marra said:

Lotus would never do hybrid as sometimes it does nothing of benefit.

:cough: 414E :cough:

Edited April 12, 2021 by Giniw

[Matt W]

From an article published today, Matt Windle states Lotus will skip hybrid and go pure electric...

https://www.carmagazine.co.uk/electric/lotus/

Which suggests the 131 will be an evolution of the current range. Other speculation, and Lotus quotes themselves, say it will be based on the current V6, so will be interesting to see what the new car offers. Mock ups, and the Evija suggest it could look pretty stunning. 

[JimH]

and again here today :-

https://www.carmagazine.co.uk/car-news/industry-news/lotus/global-expansion/

[hedgerley]

Today's Windle interview, about what he learned at Tesla. Some interesting snippets about the Roadster and why Lotus is going straight to electric. Hard to think of a better qualified bloke to be in charge currently. I'm very hopeful for the future.

https://www.carmagazine.co.uk/car-news/industry-news/lotus/matthew-windle/

[mg4lotus]

On 25/01/2021 at 10:11, Bibs said:

I popped the image into photoshop and upped some levels so you don't have to

OK, so there are 3 cars under covers, the one on the right has the headlights of the Emira and does appear to have the outline of the Emira. What about the other two?

[chipp]

At the launch last night I thought that the back of the black car looked it longer but didn't really get a good look.

[Evotion]

Yeah, and strange, as Black is not included on the configurator!

[TomE]

The configurator may not include all of the options.  I'm hoping some the current colours might be available as well as the 6 in the configurator.  This fancy new paint system they've installed is supposed to let them change colour easily from car to car  

[Evotion]

2 minutes ago, TomE said:

 This fancy new paint system they've installed is supposed to let them change colour easily from car to car  

Umm., good point.  I do hop so, as orange comes into play.

However, this is not the feeling I got from the dealer. We will see. Long way to go yet.  

[Giniw]

By the way, I may have missed something but do we know what material the body is made of?

[Bibs]

Composites, no changes here.

[Mark Blanchard]

I hope the series has a batch of homologated road cars.  I'm looking forward to seeing some Emira Cup / GT4 specials.

[Evotion]

27 minutes ago, Mark Blanchard said:

I hope the series has a batch of homologated road cars.  I'm looking forward to seeing some Emira Cup / GT4 specials.

We originally didnt think so but a couple of Lotus people have not suggested there will be GT4 road cars but not for 2 or 3 years, heading towards the end of the run.