Lotus Mulling Open Top Evora Designs, More Versions to Follow
With the Elise and Exige about ready to be retired, soon the only model in the Lotus lineup will be the new Evora. A new Elise won’t arrive for several years. The same goes for the flagship Esprit. So to keep the company afloat and improve sales Lotus is looking to grow the Evora range.
Having just released the higher-performance Evora S model, Lotus Cars USA PR boss Kevin Smith has confirmed the brand is seriously considering a drop-top version that will join the lineup. “We’d like to add an open-top model to the Evora range,” he said during a Q&A session at the Launch of the S in San Jose last week. Smith even indicated that the issue wasn’t so much if Lotus would move ahead with the project, but how, with engineers and product planners still debating what form of convertible top to give the car, whether it be a targa top or a roadster.
In addition, he hinted that other Evora models would follow, as would track specialty cars, along the lines of the Elise-based 2-Eleven.
Later this year Lotus will introduce the Evora IPS, adding an automatic transmission to the Evora model. Then, in late 2012, the Evora S IPS will arrive.
GALLERY: Lotus Evora S
