As Lotus embarks on a bold new future that includes electric hypercars, a unique piece of the company’s history in sportscar electrification has come up for sale.
The 2012 Lotus Evora 414E is a range-extending hybrid prototype that is now being offered by its owner for £150,000. The car is powered by twin electric motors fed by a 15kWh battery pack that’s kept topped up by a 1.2-litre, three-cylinder range-extender engine.
It was good for a claimed 4.4-second sprint to 62mph and a top speed of 133mph. The powertrain never made production, and Lotus sold the car to a local businessman and Lotus aficionado, Stuart Monument, in 2016.
“I think they needed the money quite desperately so they sold some of the cars that just hung around not doing anything. I was lucky enough to buy it,” Monument told Autocar. “I got the sense it was important they sold it to a keen enthusiast of the brand”.
Monument hired some of the original Lotus staff to get it up and running again and then took it to a local airfield for a blast. Since then, however, it’s just sat in a garage.
“It’s something unique and if you’re a car freak you end up doing those sort of things,” he said. The car isn’t road legal but it has got a chassis number and Monument reckons it might be possible to register, although he hasn’t personally investigated it. It comes with two spare battery packs.
Monument also bought a ‘half-car’ cutaway version of the Evora showing off the technology, which Lotus, now under new Geely ownership, has bought back. He says he hasn’t had the call from Lotus about the 414E yet, “but you never know”. Monument also owns a unique Lotus Esprit with experimental active suspension.
The 414E was built as part of a project involving Nissan, Jaguar Land Rover, gearbox specialist Xtrac and EVO Electric, an electric motor producer. Funded partly with a £19 million government grant, the project also produced the Infiniti Emerg-E prototype, essentially a reskinned Evora 414E.
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Such as shame.
In a way, this brings real shame on the last management of Jean-Marc Gales, that unfortunately Autocar would often say good things about, despite the fact that he was nothing more than a bean counter driving the company towards it death with nothing other than special editions, product profit maximisation by removing the stuff that customers did care about like engine covers and with no real vision of the future. And the message on profit was a complete load of rubbish. The top line sales were down every year following Dany Bahars strategy.
Now Geely owns Lotus, the Dany Bahar strategy is back and modernised for the electric era. Same thing, different wrapping for a different time. Autocar and other media demonised Dany and in so many ways he brought it almost as much vision as Colin Chapman.
wheelman wrote:
The Difference is that Bahar had a fanciful strategy without any way of making it happen. It was therefore completely unrealistic and had no chance of saving Lotus. Geely has money and makes things happen.
jason_recliner wrote:
Dany had the cash and a robust strategy. It was fully signed off by Proton. It only evaporated after Proton were acquired by DHB Hicom. You don't think industry heavy weights come to a company without checking that the foundations exist. Amazing how history blurs...
wheelman wrote:
Five new cars? All at once? I don't think so.
The Lotus way
Most companies destroy their million pound prototypes for fear that they might be used on the road, or damage the reputation of the company.
Not Lotus, it sells them off to rich punters!
Er...
No.