Emira is the name of the new Lotus that keeps alive the tradition of names starting with “E”. Speaking of traditions, this will be the last Lotus of the old school, that is with traditional non-electrified thermal engines. The next sports cars that will come out of Hethel’s gates, in fact, will marry the latest trends in powertrain. The Emira, however, will hit dealerships next spring and will be the first unreleased model seen in a Lotus showroom in the past twelve years. It will take the place of three cars – Elise, Exige and Evora – effectively retiring them all. Nothing will remain of them, not even the obsessive search for lightness, given that the Emira will weigh no less than 14 quintals. But in the meantime, it is a completely new project and it was not to be taken for granted given the troubled recent history of the British company, which found peace only in 2017 with the entry into the Geely Group.
“The Emira is a game changer for Lotus. It summarizes everything we have achieved to date in the transformation of the business and is a milestone on our path to becoming a true global performance car brand,” said Matt Windle, CEO of Lotus. This globalization also passes through a dimensional growth, given that the Emira is 4.41 meters long, 1.89 wide and 1.22 high, and that its weight is almost double compared to the first Elise of 1996. Considering that the frame is always in aluminum, much of this greasing is due to increased comfort and compliance with current safety standards.
On the other hand, the ability to stow luggage has improved: there are 208 liters behind the two seats and another 151 in the compartment at the rear. The Emira, therefore, wants to be exploitable and attract many more customers than in the past, also by virtue of a price that should start at around 70,000 euros, defining it almost as a unicum in the current market, which is polarized among the very few “popular” sports cars. survivors and premium ones that all start at at least 100,000 euros. At the beginning under the hood there will still be the faithful 3.5 V6 of Toyota origin supercharged with a supercharger and combined with a manual or automatic transmission with torque converter.
It delivers 400 hp allowing the Emira to fly up to 290 km / h and sprints from 0 to 100 km / h in less than 4.5 seconds. Later will come a more modern unit provided by Mercedes-AMG, that is, a 2.0 4-cylinder turbo with 360 HP, coupled exclusively to a double-clutch automatic transmission. The leap in quality is also inside, with the two displays of 10.25 and 12.3 inches, the electric seats and the refined finishes. There are also all the camera and radar-based driving assistance systems, in addition to the connected infotainment system compatible with the Android Auto and Apple CarPlay protocols and a Kef audio system with ten speakers.
