Opinion: Lotus Is Ruining Its Only Good Model

Lotus — Colin Chapman’s beloved British sports car brand, famed for its commitment to its founder’s motto of “simplify and add lightness” — is in a rough spot. Like every other British sports car company, the brand spent decades building great, small sports cars, selling rather few of them, and accumulating debt, until a new owner, Chinese EV giant Geely, bailed it out. When Geely bought the company, it promised it wasn’t just buying the name — as happened with MG — but that it would genuinely invest in the brand. And it did.Lotus Electra SUV. Courtesy of LotusAlong with releasing a heavy, overpriced electric sedan and an even heavier electric SUV — both built in China and selling terribly — in 2021, the company unveiled the beautiful Lotus Emira. It’s a proper sports car, in the legacy of the Elise and Evora, and built at Hethel, as all previous Lotus sports cars have been.Its release was repeatedly delayed, and when it finally reached American customers, it was about $14,000 more expensive than originally advertised. But it’s among the best-looking and best-driving Lotuses ever, and certainly the best-built. Emiras have also held their value remarkably well, particularly compared to other recent British sports cars like the Jaguar F-Type.If you own a manual Emira, you will be happy to know that your car will retain its value, as Geely has announced that, in 2028, the Emira will change powertrains. The car is currently offered with either a Mercedes-AMG four-cylinder paired with an eight-speed dual-clutch automatic or a Toyota V6 available with a six-speed manual.The revised version will ditch both in favor of a new 3.0-liter twin-turbo V6 developed by Horse. It’ll put out 536 horsepower and 516 pound-feet of torque — a big leap from the 400 horsepower and 317 pound-feet of the current Toyota engine — and is actually 22 pounds lighter than that engine.Those are impressive figures, but Horse is not an esteemed engine builder like Cosworth; rather, it is a new collaborative venture between Geely and the French automaker Renault. Nothing screams reliability like a new V6 developed by a Chinese–French collaboration, and while spare parts are readily available for the beloved Toyota V6, the same will not be true for a Horse engine, which will be exposed to tariffs.Lotus CEO Feng Qingfeng said in an interview with Autocar that the company had made the change because of customer demand, particularly from America. “They told us that they love the V6 engine, and actually the V6 version is our best-seller in the US market,” he said.Adding 136 more horsepower to the Emira should make it a riot to drive, and the engine could exceed the low expectations. But the rest of the powertrain is a dealbreaker. 88 percent of Emiras sold in America had the V6 — but that’s not because drivers hate the AMG unit or love V6s. It’s because if you wanted the Emira with a manual, which drivers do, you had to pick the V6.And the Horse engine will be available only with a four-speed — yes, four-speed — hybrid automatic transmission. Though the company boasted about how light its V6 is, it has failed to mention how much weight the new transmission will add, with its motors and added batteries.Nobody in their right mind will buy this car. While it’s easy to blame Lotus’s Chinese owners, regulators in Brussels are also at fault here; the Toyota V6 can’t comply with new European emissions regulations, and automatics make it easier to pass the tests.

Opinion: Lotus Is Ruining Its Only Good Model

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