Lotus says goodbye to Exige, Elise, and Evora

KUALA LUMPUR: With its eyes on an electric future, the British sports car brand Lotus has finally ended the production of its three combustion engine-powered models - Elise, Exige, and Evora. The last units of each model rolled out from the brands’ Hethel facility are kept reserved exclusively for Lotus’ Heritage collection. 

Lotus introduced the Elise in 1996, the Exige in 2000, and the Evora in 2009. It built a total of 51,738 units of these three models over the course of 26 years in Hethel, UK, which includes 35,124 units of Elise, 10,497 units of Exige, and 6.117 units of Evora. They combined represent almost half of the brand’s sales in its 73 years history. 

The final edition of the Elise is a yellow Sport 240 Final Edition, the final Exige is a heritage racing green Cup 430 Final Edition and the final unit of the Evora is the GT430 Sport painted in a dark metallic grey.

Matt Windle, Managing Director, Lotus Cars, said: “First of all, I would like to thank the Lotus team who have worked on the Elise, Exige, and Evora over the years. 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.”

The assembly lines of the models will now be replaced with "all-new state-of-the-art facilities" for the production of Lotus upcoming models - Emira, the Evija, and the Type 132. The Lotus Emira is the final pure IC-engine powered Lotus car, which is expected to hit the global markets next year. The Lotus Evija and Type 132, on the other hand, are the automaker’s pure EVs, of which the former is the electric hypercar while the latter is an electric SUV.

Also read: Here’s the Malaysian-spec Lotus Emira V6 First Edition, details revealed