Lotus Delays Elan to 2016

When Lotus sent us its press release last year, mentioning something about an explosion of changes, we raised an eyebrow. Then, when we met the carmaker’s concept offensive at last year’s Paris Auto Show, we raised three eyebrows. Especially after the story with the UK Government’s refusal to offer financial aid to the carmaker, the topic of this news comes as no surprise: Lotus announced that the Elan will be delayed, with 2016 being the earliest launch date for the vehicle.

The company didn’t offer an official reason for this, but tried to find a “politically correct” way of explaining it. The carmaker told Car and Driver that it will give the Evora “a more traditional life-cycle”. We’ll remind you that the Evora was only supposed to be an intermediate step that would create a pathway between Lotus’s former and new identity. Thus, the vehicle was supposed to be replaced by the Elan in 2013.

Fortunately there is a good side to all this: the Evora, a vehicle that really deserves to stay with us for more than just a few years, is expected to receive new incarnations in the future, such as a convertible and a hardcore version destined for the track. However, no official info on this has been offered.

However, Lotus confirmed the fact that the Esprit will keep its original 2013 launch date. We were happy to hear that and we hope that there will be no more room for delays in this schedule.