The Lotus name has always been synonymous with lightweight, track-focused sportscars, and while that ethos has remained largely intact the company’s exciting new range of vehicles looks set to accommodate a broader segment of the market.
According to CAR deputy editor Hannes Oosthuizen, who was at this year’s Paris Motor Show, the reaction to the unveiling of such models as the four-door Eterna was a mixture of hushed awe at the company’s exciting future and the feeling that after 15 years of limted success with its traditionally niche (read lightweight sportscar) product offerings this impressive new product assault could be the last throw of the dice for the Hethel-based firm.
Now Lotus has introduced its City Car concept – a stylish, practical and eco-friendly foil to Aston Martin’s Cygnet city car.
This 3-door, 4-seater city car weighs in at a not-inconsiderable 1 400 kg but, unlike most car’s of its ilk, it is not solely powered by a wheezy, small-capacity combustion unit.
Instead, the City Car concept features a front-mounted 1,2-litre petrol/flex-fuel engine developing 34 kW that acts as a range extender/power source for an electric motor powering the rear wheels. The total output for these units sits at a hearty 162 kW and 240 N.m of torque, although the continuous power output sits at a modest 54 kW.
According to Lotus, the City Car concept has an EV range of 60 km, which climbs to 500 km when the range-extending petrol powerplant is brought into play.
The performance figures, whilst obviously not in the same league as the rest of Lotus’ offerings, are respectable nonetheless: 0-100 km takes 9 seconds, while the nip-into-that-gap-in-the-traffic 0-50 km/h burst takes 4,5 seconds. Lotus claims CO2 emissions of just 60 g/km with the petrol range-extender doing its thing.
The cabin is features a panoramic glass roof, leather/carbon-fibre trim accents and central seat panels covered in a “prime green” and yellow tartan. To ensure that this 4-seater’s rear accommodation is actually usable, Lotus engineers have located the vehicle’s battery pack beneath the passenger compartment.
Speaking with British motoring publication Autocar, Lotus chief engineer, Wolf Zimmerman, revealed that the company is in the process of looking for a technological partner with which to bring the City Car concept to production by 2014.
