Lotus Elise, Exige and Evora production ends

The final examples of the Lotus Elise, Exige and Evora sports cars have rolled off the assembly line, marking the end of an era for the British brand as it now turns to the all-new 2022 Lotus Emira that will replace all three.

The current production lines at Lotus’ Hethel factory in England were installed more than two decades ago, but have now fallen silent as they’re dismantled and replaced with state-of-the-art facilities that will start cranking out the Lotus Emira early next year ahead of first Australian deliveries by mid-2022.

Prototype and final testing phases of the Emira are nearing completion, upon which Lotus sports car production will move into a high-tech and semi-automated era for the first time and boost annual capacity to 5000 units a year (based on a single shift pattern).

This will include the long-awaited Lotus Evija hypercar and, further down the line, other all-new models including SUVs and an all-new electric sports car.

Surrounded by factory workers, designers, engineers, salespeople and other personnel involved in their long run, the final Lotus Elise, Exige and Evora cars will be reserved for the company’s heritage collection.

Between the three model lines, a total of 51,738 cars were produced over a 26-year period, representing almost half of the total production of Lotus cars over its 73-year history.

In addition, 9715 sports cars were built for third-party clients, including General Motors (Opel Speedster and Vauxhall VX220, 7200 units from 2000-2005) and Tesla (Roadster, 2515 units from 2007-2012).

The final Elise was a Sport 240 Final Edition (the last of 35,124 cars), the last Exige was a Cup 430 Final Edition (number 10,497) and the last Evora was a GT430 Sport (the last of a production run of 6117 units).

Lotus Cars managing director Matt Windle paid tribute to the employees who worked on the Elise, Exige and Evora over the years – and well as the brand’s loyal customers who’ve shown great “passion, enthusiasm and support”.  

“These customers have given our ‘three Es’ true cult status – usually reserved for long-out-of-production classics,” he said.

“As we say farewell to the last few cars, we look forward to the Emira and Evija in the all-new factories at Hethel and sub-assembly facilities in Norwich, which introduce greater efficiencies and automation, higher quality and flexibility and the hugely exciting next chapter in our Vision80 strategy.”