Lotus annouces new Hybrid and Electric Vehicle Group

Lotus annouces new Hybrid and Electric Vehicle Group

Filed under: Green, Lotus


Behind the scenes, Lotus is much more than a low-volume manufacturer of sporty little roadsters. Along with Lotus Cars, Group Lotus houses Lotus Engineering. With decades of motorsports experience, Lotus Engineering offers consulting expertise to automotive suppliers and OEM manufacturers. They've even made their mark in the intense world of cycling. More recently, their close work with Tesla as the supplier of the Roadster's chassis must have had some influence on the next direction of the firm, as they have now announced the creation of a new Hybrid and Electric Vehicle Group. Lotus hopes the move will further expand its consulting reach.

The newly-anointed Hybrid and Electric Vehicle Group is already busy with project Low CO2. The initiative is a collaborative effort with automotive supplier Continental. The engineers have reduced the CO2 emissions of the already low-emitting 1.5L gasoline-powered Opel Astra by 15 percent while also bumping up its power output. Their achievements are accomplished through improved exhaust manifold design, injector placement, altered valve lift and timing, increased fuel pressure and the implementation of a mild hybrid drive. Follow the jump for the official press release.

[Source: Lotus]Continue reading Lotus annouces new Hybrid and Electric Vehicle Group

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there goes lotus' history of not making any water-downed bullshit cars.

Well, I wouldn't put them in the BS pile quite yet - I mean it is not like they are cranking these cars out. Just that they are only offering their engineering and technological know how to these manufacturers. There Lotus has a deep rooted history with various OEMs - be it for better or worse. Not that anything like this was new to Lotus - they've dabbled with electric and hybrid propulsion systems before in the 80', possibly evern ealier - just that they are more renown for their chassis and suspension expertise. Plus it is not like they are abondoning their core principles, just adding to their "toolbag" of tricks.

Hybrids are the way of the future anyways. I wouldn't mind a fast hybrid Lotus with good gas mileage to boot.

Lotus cars are known for being basically a street legal gokart and are great because they normally weight less than a ton. This is done by using light weight metals and composites. Not even carpet is put in and everything else including power windows are optional. The whole definition of hybrids negates this. A vehicles that uses 2 engines, a large battery pack and a traditional fuel tank adds weight. No matter how light the extra component gets it would never be as good as going with the traditional one engine/one car setup.

Colin Chapman is probably rolling over in his grave right now.

Furturemore IMO Hybrid is a fad technology made popular by celebrities trying to act like environmentalists. In Europe diesel vehicles gets far more MPGs and Hybrids are not selling in that market at all (Jeremy Clarkson tested a prius to get 45MPG and a simularly sized VW lupo diesel which got 75MPG). In the US, actual environmentalists are changing hybrids into plug in EVs because they believe hybrid technology are not efficient enough. If anything they'll just surve as a bandaid to slow down use of fossile fuels until NGVs hits the market.. which won't be very long from now.

Hybrids are only good for stop and go traffic. However, if the majority of miles driven is traffic, then an electric car is best. For cruising, the gas engine still runs full power, so it defeats the purpose of high mileage. You're right. Driven properly, a gas engine can achieve better mileage than a hybrid. It's all about driving style and habits.

yes that's true but I still fail to see how 45MPG can catch up to 75MPG in real world conditions unless the car is just left idleing. Reason I am calling the above car a bs car is because just looking at that car I can see Lotus' racing pedigree dying. There are cars you daily drive from point A to point B, Lotus shouldn't fall into that catagory.

Agreed. Lotus should let some other company do the dirty work. I hope this is just some experiment that fails.

But Lotus never said it was even making these cars - the one that is pictured is an Opel with Lotus tuning. They haven't cashed in the their heritage - just taking it to the next step. A company like Lotus will make no maney trying to compete with existing hybrid platforms by introducing their own - they work with existing manufacturers to squeeze more performance from their current line up.

I have no complaints with Lotus continuing on with their low production enthusiast cars and expanding the company to provide tuning expertise for new technologies. Taking an existing platform and reducing overall emissions output while bumping up the power - sounds good to me.

I mean - they did the same with the MKI MR2 and MKII and MKIII Supra - with chassis tuning. Can't all be a bad thing. I agree that hybrids at this point are more of a fad or tax shelter - but lessons learned could increases efficiency of the internal combustion engine.