Earlier this year, Lotus officially announced plans to build a successor to the Esprit supercar, which will serve as the company’s future flagship towards the end of the decade. Today, the automaker announced it also has plans for two other new models. These include a new mid-range Lotus set for launch in December 2008 and a Lotus/Proton high-performance model, due in May 2008. Additionally, Lotus gave a firm timeframe for the new Esprit, which it says will be unveiled in December 2009. Previously, Lotus had planned to launch the car a year earlier.

Lotus says it decided to delay the launch of the Esprit to incorporate more Lotus “DNA” and other enhancements to “meet the changing needs of the global marketplace.”

Proton previously indicated it was working with Lotus on a low-cost vehicle that would cost somewhere between $15,000 and $20,000 U.S. dollars. Lotus was also said to be collaborating on the now-cancelled Volkswagen GX3.

Mike Kimberley, Chief Executive Officer, Group Lotus said: “We are very pleased to have secured LGIL Board approval for a high-level five-year strategic business plan - the first such approved plan that this company has had in the last six years. We have some great opportunities ahead of us and some already under way. It’s a very bright future but we have to work hard to bring all the opportunities to fruition.”

The current Lotus model range includes the award-winning and class-leading Elise and Exige with the recently-introduced Europa S. Development work on two of the three new models is already
ongoing and will increase significantly in future months.

In August, rumors surfaced that Lotus might begin re-engineering cars from other automakers as it did as many as forty years ago with the Ford Lotus Cortina, Talbot Lotus Sunbeam and Vauxhall Lotus Carlton.

Lotus is responsible for much of the engineering work on the recently-introduced Tesla electric roadster.