A good run: Lotus bids farewell to the Elise, Exige, and Evora

MANILA: Lotus has officially ended the production of its Elise, Exige, and Evora sports cars.

The trio was photographed on site with members of the Lotus team who worked on the cars’ design, engineering, assembly, and sales.

In a statement, Lotus Cars Managing Director Matt Windle said, “First of all, I would like to thank the Lotus team who have worked on the Elise, Exige, and Evora over the years and who are now transferring to Emira and Evija manufacturing. I would also like to convey enormous gratitude to all the customers of the Elise, Exige, and Evora over the last 26 years for their passion, enthusiasm and support. These customers have given our ‘three Es’ true cult status — usually reserved for long-out-of-production classics. As we say farewell to the last few cars, we look forward to the Emira and Evija in the all-new factories at Hethel and sub-assembly facilities in Norwich, which introduce greater efficiencies and automation, higher quality and flexibility and the hugely exciting next chapter in our Vision80 strategy.”

Over the course of 26 years, a total of 51,738 units have been produced between these three model lines. They account for about half of Lotus entire production in its 73-year history. In addition, Lotus produced 9,715 sports cars for third-party clients such as GM and Tesla.

“These iconic cars have not only played a huge role in Lotus’ 73-year history but have also been ever-present in my daily life,” Lotus Cars Design Director Russell Carr stated. “Together with the Lotus design team, I have lived and breathed these cars for over 26 years. We will miss them, but a bit like Christmas, once it’s over, the excitement for the next one starts to build — and that’s what’s happening now at Lotus with the Evija, Emira, and forthcoming Type 132. 2022 is going to be a great year as a new Lotus generation swings into action.”

The first-generation Elise and Exige sports cars were constructed alongside the Lotus Esprit in a small assembly hall in England from 1996 to 2000. The current assembly lines, which were established in 2000, will be demolished and replaced with all-new state-of-the-art facilities in support of the all-new Emira factory. Once the prototype and test phases get completed in the spring, full Emira production will commence, ushering Lotus sports car production into a high-tech, semi-automated era and increasing capacity up to 5,000 vehicles per year on a single shift pattern.

The last units of Elise, Exige, and Evora are reserved for Lotus’ heritage collection.

The last Elise, a Sport 240 Final Edition painted in Yellow; the last Exige, a Cup 430 Final Edition finished in Heritage Racing Green; and the last Evora, a GT430 Sport coated in Dark Metallic Gray, will be the newest additions to the collection.

The Lotus "small car platform” underpins the Elise and Exige sports cars. The Opel Speedster/Vauxhall and the Tesla Roadster were both built on the same platform.

The Elise, the oldest of the “3Es” trio, has been a part of the automotive industry for over 25 years. Lotus Vehicle Attributes Director Gavan Kershaw shared, “The Elise, particularly, has been a huge part of my life. It was conceived when I had just finished my apprenticeship and I was working in the vehicle workshops helping to build early prototypes. The Exige will always remain close to me, as the development program was the first that I worked on as an engineer and I also won the British GT3 championship in a race version. The Evora is also hugely important as it showed that you can have high performance and award-winning handling without sacrificing the longer-journey GT ability. I have first-hand experience of this as I won the British GT4 championships in one and I will never forget leading the technical program for our Evora Le Mans campaign where we achieved a podium.”

Meanwhile, Lotus Vehicle Concepts Head Richard Rackham said, “The impact of these three cars has been spectacular over the years, technically, structurally and dynamically. But all technologies and innovations move on and, if you had asked me of my proudest moment four years ago, I would have, without hesitation, said the Elise chassis. However, this has been usurped by our new Project LEVA architecture for our new range of electric sports cars, starting with the Type 135 in a few years’ time. This is now the zenith of Lotus architectures as it has moved the technology game so much further. There is a lot to look forward to.”

The company’s next release is the Emira, the highly acclaimed new mid-engineered sports car. Launched last July, it is the last petrol-powered car from Lotus. The all-electric Type 132, Lotus’ first SUV, will be making its world debut in the spring, together with the first electric Lotus, the Evija hypercar.

Photos from Lotus

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