Lotus to pin revival on multiple SUVs

Lotus is primed to launch a range of SUVs within four years.

According to a new report, the British sports car maker is racing to finalise plans to open a new UK-based design studio to help it create a new generation of models.

Top of the list, according to

Speaking to parent company Geely's design boss Peter Horbury at the Beijing motor show, the former Volvo designer told C&D that plans are already afoot to create a new generation of Lotus models.

"I can tell you that the ambitions for Lotus are greater than they were," he said.

"We see it as a possibility of building a whole brand, a whole group of products that carry the Lotus name, into areas the company hasn't been in before. I think we've already mentioned the SUVs coming along, and we need a lot of resources to do this in a very swift time."

According to the US publication, the 'multiple SUVs' will be based on both Volvo's small Compact Modular Architecture (CMA) that the Swedish car-maker bases its XC40 on and the larger Scalable Product Architecture (SPA) that provides the underpinnings for the XC90.

Despite the mainstream platforms, Horbury claims that a Lotus SUV would have "added lightness", hinting it could be made of more exotic weight-saving materials.

"An SUV is never going to be as light as an Evora or another Lotus," he said, "but if you're going to call it a Lotus then it has to be the lightest it can be of that genre. It's going to be a challenge, but we're very much looking forward to it."

Lotus design, it's claimed, will remain based at the company's Norfolk HQ in the UK, but an all-new Geely design facility 150km away in Coventry is expected to assist heavily with the new Lotus projects.

The UK satellite design centre will work alongside Geely's Shanghai, Gothenburg, Pasadena (USA) and Barcelona studios.

Horbury says a UK-based design studio is important for the British car-maker to "maintain the creative work of Lotus in England".

Thanks to the use of Volvo platforms, Lotus is thought to now be in a position to launch its first SUV by 2022.

Speeding up the timeframe further could be a decision to switch from Toyota to turbocharged Volvo four-cylinder engines.

The only fly-in-the-ointment for Lotus is that neither Volvo nor its well-resourced parent company Geely has any platform suitable for the mid-engine, rear-wheel drive application that's necessary to underpin a replacement for Elise, Exige and Evora.

Either way, according to the Horbury, Lotus could move upmarket to challenge the likes of Porsche for brand equity.

"The other thing we're looking at is where can Lotus be positioned," the Geely designer chief told Car & Driver, "where it is today versus where the competition might be. China has proved a huge market for more luxurious, more expensive cars – that's a possibility," he told the US mag.

Lotus won't turn its back on its lightweight sports car heritage, however, with CEO Jean-Marc Gales confirming in recent weeks that Geely parent company has also approved two new sports cars, both of which will be launched in 2020.

The last all-new Lotus was the Evora, in 2009.