In an interview with the UK’s Auto Express, Lotus CEO Dany Bahar confirmed that his company is still on track to launch a small two-door car similar to the concept it showed at the Paris Motor Show in 2010.
The car in question will be developed in collaboration with Proton, Lotus’ parent company, and will debut under that name in 2014. The Lotus-badged version of it will be launched a year later. Bahar insists that it will not be a simple badge-engineering and that the price difference between the Proton and the Lotus will be entirely justified.
The car will be Lotus’ first offering in the premium compact segment and will be squarely aimed at similar offerings from BMW, MINI, Audi, as well as the smaller, Toyota iQ-based Aston Martin Cygnet. Its projected base price was purposely set at £29,000 ($45,200) to make it £2,000 ($3,000) less expensive than the Cygnet.
As for what will be under the hood, Bahar told Auto Express that “there’s no point in trying to fight the MINIs, and the small BMWs and Audis unless you have a special offering. Our car will be an EV or range extended EV and will offer performance of no other small car.” He did not give any precise figures or technical details.
References
1.’Lotus city car…’ view
