The new Lotus will arrive in 2021 and will be positioned between the Exige and the Evora

This year 2020 has been quite turbulent for everyone, and car manufacturers are also being affected. Today we are going to talk about Lotus, and it turns out this brand is already working on a new member of its automotive family. A new sports car from Lotus could be on its way!

2021 is the year chosen by the manufacturer to unveil a completely new model. As Lotus has assured, “it will delight driving enthusiasts.”

This new Lotus model will become the first completely new car in the last twelve years. It is internally known as Type 131, and it will find its place between its siblings, the Lotus Exige and the Lotus Evora. Furthermore, it will not replace either of the two.

The Type 131 will be deeply and boldly rooted in the company’s decades-long heritage. It will adopt the philosophy of “simplify and add lightness” of Lotus’s founder, Colin Chapman, thanks in part to a new platform that should be modular enough to support other future additions to the company’s range. It will be offered in coupé and roadster variants, although only one body style might be available at launch.

Lotus Type 131, what will it surprise us with?

According to specialist sources, the new Lotus 131 will be underpinned by a very light and completely new platform. Furthermore, this new model will use the power of an internal combustion engine instead of a hybrid powertrain. In this way, the manufacturer will reduce the vehicle’s weight. For now, it has not been specified whether it will be a four- or six-cylinder engine, but everything points to it fitting a turbocharged four-cylinder.

One possibility is that Lotus will obtain the Type 131’s engine from Geely instead of Toyota, but it is definitely too early to speculate on this. Last year, Lotus’s CEO, Phil Popham, shared some details about the Type 131 project and stated that “we are now busy investing in a fairly aggressive business plan that will deliver a completely new sports car next year. It will be shown at the end of 2021 and go on sale some time later. We are also investing in new platforms.”

“The Lotus Type 131 will not be fully electric, unlike the hypercar, which will be. Beyond that, any car we have will include fully electric derivatives. It is not the only propulsion system we are working on, but electricity will be part of it.”

Phil Popham also addressed the potential switch to engines sourced from Geely, saying that his company will have access to the powertrains that currently exist within the group, as well as the units that were under development at that time, “but we are not restricted to that. We are very free to collaborate and source from other manufacturers,” he concluded.

At the other end of the scale, Lotus is also developing its first SUV. The model, which does not yet have a name, will be built on a Geely group platform (possibly the CMA architecture), and the developers will be able to emphasize performance. Enthusiasts will cry, but the vehicle will become the best-selling Lotus.