Lotus has announced a new ‘Focus 2030’ initiative that it hopes will realign its priorities with the changing nature of the luxury car market. This multi-faceted shift in strategy is headlined by plans to revitalise the Lotus Emira sports car and more heavily emphasise plug-in hybrid powertrains for the four-door Lotus models. It also sets out plans for the creation of a new V8-powered Lotus Esprit supercar. The Focus 2030 changes will sit across four ‘core pillars’ across the business, reinforcing the brand’s heritage and multi-energy powertrain strategies while encouraging a closer collaboration with partners and better financial discipline. The first fruits of all this will be a ‘new’ Lotus Emira which will be revealed in the coming weeks, alongside an unambiguous commitment from Lotus to British engineering and manufacturing. This is the sole model manufactured at the Lotus plant in Hethel, Norfolk, and after mass layoffs last year affirms the medium-term future of the factory within the Lotus portfolio. Few technical details of this new Emira have been confirmed, but according to Lotus it’ll be the most powerful and lightest version yet. We don’t yet know whether it will use the four or six-cylinder powertrain currently available, but both are close to their ceiling when it comes to outright performance, suggesting that power gains will be subtle. An easier place to see improvements is the removal of weight and we expect a more comprehensive application of lightweight composites to achieve a ‘Cup’ model or similar, as seen on the Evora and Elise towards the end of their lives. Beyond the updated Emira, there’s also been our first glimpse at a new V8-powered supercar called the Type 135, although we suspect it’ll carry the more evocative Lotus Esprit name when we see the production car in 2028. We’ve gone into considerably more detail about the Type 135 Lotus Esprit on our dedicated page. The other major element of this new plan is a renewed focus on hybrid powertrains for the Lotus Eletre SUV. A new 938bhp variant called Eletre X will reach European customers in the fourth quarter of this year, and moving forward, the company will target a global sales split of 60/40 between PHEVs and BEV models in the short term. Fulfilling the collaboration pillar, Lotus has dipped into the Horse Powertrains joint-venture between Geely and Renault to source a new 1.5-litre four-cylinder petrol engine for its ‘X Hybrid’ system. The setup sees the petrol unit work in conjunction with two electric motors on a 900V electrical system. Lotus’ use of this new powertrain resource should only grow in future, too, with the Emeya saloon also primed to get a PHEV powertrain, not to mention the hybrid-powered Type 135 supercar. Lotus’ core growth strategy will be primarily aimed at the Chinese market, leveraging the increased demand for high performance plug-in hybrid models. Demand for BEVs remains flat in China, and with the reduction of local subsidies for electric cars, this is likely to continue. If you’re in the market for a high-performance SUV just like the Lotus Eletre, check out the Auto Express Buy a Car service now for all the latest deals.
