Lotus is going through a bit of a renaissance. It’s one that Lotus Cars’ founder, Colin Chapman, probably wouldn’t have agreed to, but now with new majority owner Geely at the helm, the historic British sportscar maker has now fully embraced electrification, having unveiled two heavyweight fully-electric models, plus one more SUV in the pipeline, as it attempts to rewrite its own history in the new era.
There’s no going back from EVs for Lotus, but at least, the marque’s original ethos will soon be making a return – in the form of a “lightweight” two-seater sports car. Dubbed internally as Type 135, the upcoming two-seater sports car will soon be making its official debut sometime in 2026 before going on sale in 2027, and it’ll be built around “dynamics, aerodynamics, and lightweighting” – the same three pillars that have shaped the brand since its inception in 1948.
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“We call it the bullseye,” said Lotus Group Chief Commercial Officer Mike Johnstone while speaking to Autocar UK. “At the very centre [of the brand] always has to be that lightweight sports car. That gives you the credibility to build other products that have sporty characteristics.”
“Otherwise, we’re just a brand with a Lotus badge. The sports car is an essential part of our future,” he added. Unlike the three EVs from the brand that would have debuted before it, the Lotus Type 135 will be also be developed and built in Hethel, the brand’s home in the UK, instead of Wuhan, China.
A key to the Type 135’s lightweight promise is the marque’s new Project LEVA (Lightweight Electric Vehicle Architecture), as announced back in 2021. The platform structure is said to be 37% lighter than the equivalent in the Emira sports car, although the car’s final weight is still likely going to be heavier due to the batteries.
Uniquely, the platform will also allow for batteries to be stacked behind the drivers rather than underneath the floor like in most EVs, allowing the Lotus Type 135 to have the dynamic properties of a mid-engined sports car. Of course, the system will also enable drivers to sit closer to the ground – a crucial aspect to give the car a proper “sports car feel”.
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Aside from lightweight fun, the upcoming Lotus Elise’s EV successor will also seek to carry the torch on Lotus’ long-held reputation for accessible performance. According to Autocar UK, the new yet-unnamed EV sports car will be priced at around the region of GBP75,000 (approx. RM449k), a price point that is described by “key” by Johnstone when speaking to the publication.
“It’s something that’s not a big step on from where we are at the moment, but we recognised that there’s going to be a lot of new technology. That’s an engineering challenge: it’s where we need to get to in the market. So our teams will need to work fastidiously to make sure we can get the price to that level.”
It’s still not cheap, of course, but when the other EV sports car from Lotus is priced north of GBP2 million, well…
