The V8 Lotus sports car returns

Things haven’t exactly gone to plan for Lotus of late. You might say they haven’t gone to plan for a little while, in fact, but let’s save that deep dive for another day. The electric models, the Emeya and Eletre, that weren’t meant to underpin future success haven’t sold well enough; people who like Lotuses aren’t sold on large EVs, those who like big executive cars probably aren’t that keen on having a Lotus. And what was set to be the last Lotus combustion sports car, the Emira, has undoubtedly impressed – but costs from £80,000 for the four-cylinder (that isn’t great). While many have suffered of late, the Lotus plan has really been exposed. 

So now there’s a new one, called ‘Focus 2030’. Lotus says the aim is to ‘underpin its competitiveness and transform into a more flexible sustainable business model, ensuring market resilience amid external headwinds.’ Though that sounds a lot like every attempted relaunch of every small brand, in truth, there are some encouraging promises emerging already. Focus 2030 is to be built on four core pillars: ‘brand reinforcement, a multi-powertrain strategy, close partner collaboration and financial discipline.’ Which probably should have been front and centre to begin with, but such is the benefit of hindsight. It wasn’t so long ago that many were convinced of the inevitability of all-out electrification. Already Lotus is trotting out the usual Hethel buzzwords – lightweight, obsessive, engagement, you know the script – to ‘put the Lotus DNA at the heart of every decision.’ 

Because it’s Lotus, it’s hard not to be just a tad wary of proposed reinventions, but let’s see. The crowning achievement of Focus 2030 for now is the care you can almost see here, Type 135. It will be an all-new supercar with a hybrid V8 developing more than 1,000hp. Where the V8 is coming from isn’t clear, though Lotus believes the 135 is ‘expected to be manufactured in Europe’; more info is coming later in 2026, ahead of a 2028 launch. Don’t be surprised if the Theory 1 provides some design influence.

There’s more immediate (and achievable) new stuff coming as well, including the introduction of the most powerful and lightest Emira yet built in the coming weeks. Great timing, surely, given the Cayman is gone and the Alpine is soon to depart, though given a standard V6 is already a six-figure prospect it’s not going to come cheap. Still, the continuity of a combustion powered Lotus sports car must be some kind of good news. Elsewhere, the new X-Hybrid system announced for the Eletre is due to begin European deliveries in the final quarter of this year. Lotus says the short term target for its electrified cars is 60 per cent PHEV and 40 per cent pure EV, which is a fairly drastic turnaround from recent ambition. Lotus says that it ‘remains committed to continued BEV innovation.’

As for the overall company’s prospects, it’s been stated that ‘close collaboration’ with Geely is central to the success of Focus 2030, which almost went without saying. Less obvious was the confirmation that Lotus UK and Lotus Technology will this year be merged into a single entity, which will surely be an awful lot more challenging in reality than it sounds written down – particularly given the latter is headquartered in Wuhan. But the proposed benefits – ‘unifying the brand, streamlining governance, reducing costs and accelerating engineering integration for next-generation performance vehicles – do sound like exactly what the doctor ordered for an ailing Lotus. 

And the overall aim? 30,000 sales annually, which is said to be the golden number for ‘sustained profitability’. Naturally there are different aims for different markets to achieve that number, with the focus for Europe set to be the racing heritage (what more is there left to leverage?) and ‘British engineering brand equity across a diverse powertrain portfolio.’ Costs are said to be down already, and you’d surely bank on a hybrid Eletre proving more popular right now than a purely electric one. So fingers crossed, eh?

Qingfeng Feng, Lotus Group CEO, said: “Lotus was born from the rebellious spirit of Colin Chapman, and that is not lost today. Focus 2030 will reset both the brand and the business to keep us true to our DNA. We are obsessed with engineering, obsessed with performance and obsessed with building drivers’ cars, and that is what will grow this business.” Bring on that supercar…