Ahead of Lotus’s fully electric future, the Emira is its final combustion sports car.
- The Lotus Emira is the automaker’s first all-new car since the Evora launched in 2010.
- Lotus’s last combustion model, the Emira replaces Elise, Evora, and Exige.
- The Emira offers the choice between supercharged Toyota V6 and four-cylinder AMG turbo power, with the V6 offered first.
Lotus has an incredible back catalog, but—like many of the other famous Brit acts that were big in the ‘60s and ‘70s—the company is short on recent hits. Lotus founder Colin Chapman created models around the principles of lightness and innovation, producing such successes as the Seven (a car so good that UK specialist Caterham is still making it 65 years later) and followed that with such automotive stars as the original Elan, the car the Miata tried to emulate, and then the mid-engined Esprit which was only denied the status of the world’s most famous automotive wedge by the existence of the Lamborghini Countach.
More recently, the successes have grown further apart. The Elise, which introduced a new bonded aluminum architecture, was introduced as long ago as 1996, and survived in only modestly evolved form until last year. And the Evora which was launched to great fanfare in 2010 was more of a miss than a hit, great to drive but compromised by a low-rent cabin, poor access, and pricing that looked uncompetitive against much better-rounded alternatives.
Which is why the new Emira is taking a different approach. Developed using the funds invested after Chinese automaker Geely took control of the British company in 2017, Lotus has already said the new two-seater will be the last car it launches to be powered by an internal combustion engine. That future will be here soon: A new all-electric SUV is set to be unveiled later this month. But the Emira also needs to broaden its appeal over the outgoing Evora, Elise, and Exige, not least as it will effectively be replacing all three of them.
Autoweek got the chance to drive a prototype Emira on the test track at Lotus’s HQ near Norfolk, England. The 2.2-mile circuit is, like so many British race tracks, built on the runway of the one-time USAF and RAF airbase which Lotus acquired in 1966, and every new Lotus since then has been developed using it, many under the guidance of my host, Gavan Kershaw. He started with Lotus as a technical apprentice in 1988 and has risen to become the company’s Director of Attributes, making him responsible for the way every new car drives. It was a good year for junior chassis engineers: Matt Becker, recently appointed as Jaguar Land Rover’s Chief Vehicle Engineering Director, began his apprenticeship with Lotus on the same day.
The Emira I drove wasn’t a fully finished example, but it was clearly close to final spec. According to Kershaw it was a VP1 level prototype that was part of the pool of cars being used to test adaptive safety systems, one that featured the reassuringly traditional combination of a 400 hp 3.5-liter V6 engine, a manual gearbox, and a mechanical limited-slip differential. The Toyota engine will also be offered with a torque converter auto, and a four-cylinder Emira will be introduced soon after the V6, this using a 360hp 2.0-liter turbocharged AMG-sourced engine and having a twin-clutch gearbox as its only transmission choice. Lotus has confirmed pricing for the fully loaded First Edition Emira V6: $96,100, with US deliveries beginning later this year. It has also said the base AMG-engined car will be available in 2023 with a $77,100 starting price.
The V6 prototype’s cabin isn’t in final spec, apparently some of the plastics are ungrained, but it is close enough to finished to confirm it represents a huge leap from the company’s other recent models. Getting in and out is made far easier thanks to bigger door apertures and narrower sills, and once in the driver’s seat the cabin features high-quality trim on every touchable surface—plus the novelty of both digital instruments and a 10.2-inch touchscreen in the center of the dashboard.
Yes, the Geely Group origins of some of the switchgear are undisguised—the chunky column stalks are straight from Volvo. But the twin screens are crisply rendered with bespoke graphics, and Lotus has sensibly opted to keep conventional heating and ventilation controls. The ergonomics are good, with a good range of driving adjustment, good headroom, and a view through the windscreen that includes the sight of both front fenders, making it easy to orientate the car’s position on road. One amusing distraction is the sight of the V6’s supercharger bypass valve, which can be seen working on top of the engine in the rear-view mirror.
The most obvious difference in the Emira prototype’s cabin is the lack of any rear seats. The Emira was, nominally, a 2+2, although most of the later versions were built without the cramped second-row accommodations. The Emira is a strict two-seater, although there is still a gap between these and the rear firewall to allow up to 7.3 cu-ft softer and squashier luggage to be stashed there, in addition to a 5.3 cu-ft compartment behind the engine.
While the combination of gale-force winds and the rain lashing the Hethel track during my drive are appropriately British, they don’t make for the most friendly environment to be making first acquaintance with a new sports car. Yet the Emira quickly proves to be entirely happy in the slippery conditions.
The prototype sat on the softer ‘Tour’ suspension settings, as well as street-spec Goodyear Eagle F1 tires—track biased Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2s will be offered as an option. The gentler settings worked well on the sodden track surface, but the Emira never felt lacking in either precision or performance.
The supercharged V6 engine felt largely as I remember it in the Evora—lots of torque, lag-free reactions but no great joy to be found in revving it out—a 7000-rpm limiter is pretty tame by the standards of the segment. At lower speeds it is quieter than the old car, a switchable acoustic valve in the exhaust staying closed before 4000 rpm in the car’s default Tour dynamic mode. But when pressed harder, or switched into the punchier Sport mode, the Emira quickly finds a harder-edged voice.
While 400 hp pushing 3152 pounds no longer makes for an especially spiky power-to-weight ratio by the increasingly mad standards of the supercar segment, it quickly proved to be enough to make the Emira interesting on the wet track. The prototype’s manual shifter felt weightier than the Evora’s often loose-feeling one, but the Emira’s selector sometimes snagged when being moved across its planes, especially from second to third. Truth be told, this was the only time the car really felt to be in unfinished condition.
The steering, however, was impeccable, combining Lotus’s traditional gentle initial responses with proportional reactions and genuine feedback. The V6 Emira sticks with the anachronistic use of pure hydraulic power assistance through an engine-driven pump, and this delivers voluble communication under everything from a gentle pitlane trundle to hard cornering. The AMG i4 version will use the same rack, but with the hydraulics pressurized by an electric pump; the more modern motor lacks the ability any mechanical pump.
The all-passive suspension felt similarly well judged. Hethel’s track was resurfaced a couple of years ago; before then the main straight was marred by potholes, and although it is now short on rough edges, the Emira’s pliancy was still obvious in the loadings allowed by the grip the tires could generate. It rolls slightly under hard cornering, a trait Kershaw says allows drivers to easily orientate themselves to rising lateral loads. But the dampers were able to both maintain order under aggressive directional changes, and also when asked to deal with Hethel’s curbing. Despite the wet conditions, softest springs and least aggressive tires the Emira’s dashboard also reported peak lateral acceleration of over 1G which, if accurate, is an impressive number.
Grip is strong, but the Emira’s grace in losing adhesion really stood out. In the Tour mode the stability control works hard to prevent any obvious slip, but selecting Sport eases the intervention threshold to allow the Emira’s rear end to briefly surrender grip. In the absence of the non-working Track mode, fully defeating the ESC proved that the Emira stayed predictable even without safeguards—easier to drive beyond its limits than many supercars are when using their batteries of driver-flattering active systems.
Under less intense use, the Emira continues to drive as you would expect a Lotus to. The mass of the engine behind the passenger compartment is obvious, but gives the car its dynamic character—helping the prototype to settle into corners and making it easy to adjust a chosen line through subtle inputs. Yet it never feels snappy, and proved impressively tolerant of overlapped braking and turning, too.
Lotus has never had any problem with creating fine-handling cars, of course—it’s the ‘everything else’ part the Emira improves on. Even in prototype form it feels well finished and usable in a way none of its predecessors have. Lotus’s last combustion car looks set, even on the basis of a limited first drive, to be one of the company’s historic highlights.
Keyword: 2023 Lotus Emira Closes Combustion Era in Fine-Handling Fashion