Lotus! Where to start? Many people may not have seen this car on the road, but as long as the "British Lotus Sports Car" is mentioned, many people may remember something from the long-blurred memory. Yes, it was the British Lotus that was trademarked by young Lotus, which was forced to change its name to Lotus in China. Lotus was born in 1948. Founder Colin Chapman created 7 victories for Formula One and other top racing series. It also manufactures and sells cars with extremely lightweight and legendary handling characteristics.
But after Chapman's death in 1982, Lotus's fortunes plummeted. The company is often on the brink of bankruptcy due to a shortage of funds, with limited funds to develop new cars. Its history over the past 25 years can be summed up in a few words, with elise of the new aluminum-framed body launched in 1996, the larger and supposedly more practical Evora in 2010, and the grand plan to launch five new models that followed with the departure of CEO Dany Bahar in 2012. Released in 2010, Evora continued to sell in smaller and smaller quantities until production was stopped last year.
Now a brand new Lotus sports car is on sale, the last model the company will introduce before moving to an all-electric powertrain. This is the last Lotus fuel sports car we mentioned - "Emira", "Emira" was developed with a lot of money after Geely Automobile acquired Lotus in the United Kingdom, Geely acquired Lotus in 2017. The "Emira" will go on sale later this year, and consumers can choose between a mechanically boosted 3.5-liter V6 engine from Toyota and a turbocharged 2.0-liter inline four-cylinder engine from AMG.
Although the Emria, which was tested on the track, looks much cleaner than the camouflage-covered test model in early development, it's still not the final version. According to Lotus's test director, Gavan Kershaw, it's a VP2-class prototype with the familiar Supercharged V6 engine on Evora that produces 400 horsepower and 420 Nm of torque, and the Emira's overall look is great, with its sleek styling and huge air intake holes behind the doors making it look more like a junior supercar than a GT sports car.
Although the test vehicle used a plastic interior, The Emira's interior was also impressive, with soft plastic finishes and good ergonomics on the doors and dashboard. Many of the parts on the car come from other Geely Group models, such as turn signals and wiper bars that are obviously above volvo, but the digital dashboard and central touchscreen are displayed with custom graphics. The driver's seat has a good view, plenty of legroom and pretty good headroom, and looking out from the windshield, you can see the top of the front trunk at a glance, which makes you feel like you're driving a go-kart. Although Evora is designed as a 2+2 occupant space, Emira is strictly a two-seater, although there is space in the rear seat to put luggage, but this space is small and pitiful, can only put down luggage or sit a dog in the back, sitting people can not sit at all.
Write at the end
Emira is very much like Lotus, but unlike the lotus before it, the experience it brings to motorists is still exemplary, which is almost the common denominator of all Lotus models, but it also looks like it will provide practicality that the company's early cars paid little attention to. Geely wants Lotus to increase sales by 4,500 vehicles a year, more than double the combined annual sales of Evora, Exige and Elise over the past decade. We need to wait and see how Emira responds to the market, but our first impression is that this Lotus in Geely Auto is only going to become very outstanding, such an entry-level supercar you would like?