News Published on : 10-Jan-2022 15:57:18

Lotus is commemorating the end of production of its Elise Exige and Evora sports cars. Between these three model lines and over the course of 26 years a total of 51 738 cars came off the production line. Combined they represent almost half of the total production of Lotus in its 73-year history. In addition 9 715 sports cars were built for Lotus third-party clients including GM and Tesla. From 1996 to 2000 the first-generation Elise and Exige sports cars were built in a small assembly hall at Hethel alongside the Lotus Esprit. The current assembly lines which were installed in 2000 will be dismantled and replaced with all-new state-of-the-art facilities in support of the all-new Emira factory. Full Emira production begins in the spring after the prototype and test phases currently underway are completed taking Lotus sports car production into an exciting high-tech and semi-automated era and increasing capacity up to 5 000 units per year on a single shift pattern. The last examples of the Elise Exige and Evora models are reserved for Lotus growing heritage collection. Joining the collection will be the last Elise a Sport 240 Final Edition finished in Yellow and the last of 35 124 cars the last Exige a Cup 430 Final Edition in Heritage Racing Green - number 10 497 and the last Evora - a GT430 Sport finished in Dark Metallic Grey - the last of a production run of 6 117. The Elise and Exige sports cars are built around the Lotus small car platform . On the same platform and also manufactured by Lotus at Hethel were the Opel Speedster / Vauxhall VX220 (7 200 cars built between 2000 and 2005) and the Tesla Roadster (2 515 cars built between 2007 and 2012). Therefore including the Lotus 340R Europa 2-Eleven and 3-Eleven cars this brings the total Lotus small car platform production volumes to 56 618 cars.