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Lotus is forging ahead with a new Elise and new Esprit, with predicted production dates of 2011 and 2012.

The Elise is most likely to be a development of today’s car, rather than a variant of the new Evora, which has a very different alloy chassis, and is heavier. Insiders say the Elise may be seen late in 2010, but sales won’t start until 2011.

Production of the Esprit is dependent on sufficient funds being generated by the Evora and, possibly, cash from an outside investor.
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Well I hope it looks better than that rendering - a bit underwhelming and the Lotus smiley grille doesn't look right at all.

Shame they never produced the M250, when you look at it now its easy to see how heavily it influenced the Elise refresh and Evora (not so much the Europa strangely), it would have been a good range topper, if the final result is anything like the above image then it looks fat and bloated, not what Lotus want to project I'd have thought.

Please try harder guys, you have the heritage and brand values to produce just what a modern supercar should be, don't blow it.

Simonsays:

Well I hope it looks better than that rendering

I thought it looked quite good. Anyway, looks are all down to personal opinion largely, the important thing is, as you said, to remain true to the Lotus heritage. Now that there is no Honda NSX around, maybe Lotus should be aiming to do a replacement for that if they can make it reliable. With their experience of composite body making and strong underpinnings they should be able to make a lightweight supercar that could be really desireable.

Autocar:

Lotus is forging ahead with a new Elise and new Esprit, with predicted production dates of 2011 and 2012.

The Elise is most likely to be a development of today’s car, rather than a variant of the new Evora, which has a very different alloy chassis, and is heavier. Insiders say the Elise may be seen late in 2010, but sales won’t start until 2011.

Production of the Esprit is dependent on sufficient funds being generated by the Evora and, possibly, cash from an outside investor.

 

Can you elaborate on the outside investor?

The Malaysian government has up until now been the Lotus backer.

Here is a further qouote from a channel 4 article

( http://www.channel4.com/4car/news/news-story.jsp?news_id=16636 )

After seeing Mike Kimberley's turnaround plan, parent company Khazanah recapitalised Lotus in March and wrote off £100m in debt, making that sum available for the new cars' development. 'They've had more patience with Lotus than I would have had,' he says, 'and now we're building a UK auto industry again. Not that the UK government cares.'

 As I'm sure you know lotus is 100% Malaysian owned.

When you say outside investor do you mean Khazanah? (The Malaysian government) 

Or is there another entity out there supplying investment?

John Mansfield 

The Audi R8 is seen be some as a modern day equivalent of the Honda NSX in terms of performance, useability and pricing.

 I am assuming the new Esprit will be priced at around the £60k bracket.

 Mclaren P11 will no doubt be twice as expensive, but will it be twice as good?

Roll on 2011/2012.

It looks ok, much better than Evora which looks like scrap metal...

To me it looks like a cross between a Lambo and a Lotus

Forget the Evora,take a look at the new Esprit,can't wait to see the hardtop version, cerainly show the way to Ferrari and a few others!

BulletTrainMcKane:

 

 I am assuming the new Esprit will be priced at around the £60k bracket.

 Mclaren P11 will no doubt be twice as expensive, but will it be twice as good?

You'd hope but I'm guessing between £65 - 85k bracket given that Evora is around £50k and may need room to go up in price with new engines and variants etc.

Looks wise theres definately a whiff of Lambo about that image but I reckon this is just someones interpretation and not the final design. 

 Nowt wrong with the Evora design as someone said, I think its pretty cool.  

 

I reckon that you'll need to pay £70k for the new Esprit, and I think that will probably be too much. The pics make it look very wide too, which I suppose isn't that surprising. I was following an Audi S8 this morning, and it was HUGE. I hope it won't be nearly as wide as that.

Still, I wish Lotus well, and hope that they are able to raise the funds to launch the car without delay. They ought to be in a good position to launch such a car into a post-recession period.

I'm sure Lotus can make it handle, but where will the engine come from?

Probably another Toyota engine, although I remember reading it might use a BMW engine.

Toyota have some large capacity engines which they use for their Lexus Models. The Lexus IS-F has a 5.0 Litre V8 good for 400+ BHP. Too big and heavy maybe?