Lotus to Sell Evora Chassis to Other Manufacturers

Just like any automaker, Lotus likes money. Back in the late Nineties when they introduced the well known Elise model, they made it very clear to everybody interested that its new sportscar platform was designed to be easily adapted to different applications – including different powertrains. So any producer that wanted a sports car with its name on it had to go to Lotus, buy the chassis, strap on an engine, and there you go.

Over the years, Lotus’s philosophy works, as offsprings like Opel Speedster, Vauxhall VX220 or Tesla Roadster spawned from the Elise. And now, Lotus is at it again.

After presenting their all new Evora model and even delivering a few hundred cars, the company based in England started offering the chassis to other companies. In fact, this time the presentation from Lotus Engineering even shows the Evora chassis carrying an electric powertrain.

The Evora’s chassis is an evolution of the Versatile Vehicle Architecture (VVA) from the Lotus APX concept vehicle and allows for the development of a range of vehicles up to a gross vehicle weight of 1,900 kg. It’s made largely from aluminum extrusions which can be cut off in different sizes, so the chassis can be adjusted for length and width as needed.

As far as we know, no company has yet adopted Evora’s chassis, but given the Tesla Roadster’s success - as of last week, Tesla has delivered over 850 examples of its Elise-based Roadster - many will show interest.