The Lotus Emira is a 2-door coupé from Lotus, built from 2022, in the decade the industry is turning electric. Under the bonnet: 2.0 . Daniel Durrant under Russell Carr (exterior) / Jon Statham (interior) drew it.
Where it came from
The Lotus Emira (codenamed "Type 131") is a sports car manufactured by the British company Lotus Cars. It was originally intended to be the firm's final vehicle powered by an internal combustion engine, however this plan has been canceled, and Lotus is now intending to manufacture plug-in hybrids.
Under the skin
Power comes from 2.0 other versions carried different engines, listed in the specification table below. It weighs 3279 lb. It shifts through a 6-speed Aisin Seiki#Aisin AI / Aisin AI Manual transmission / manual (3.5 L) / 6-speed Aisin Seiki#Aisin AI / Aisin AI Toyota U transmission#U660E / IPS automatic transmission. The layout matters: the engine sits behind the driver and ahead of the rear axle, which puts the mass in the middle of the car and is why mid-engined cars change direction the way they do. The wheelbase is 101.3 in. These are manufacturer figures carried by Wikipedia and Wikidata, not road-test measurements.
In context
Its family tree is legible: it took over from the Lotus Elise / Lotus Exige / Lotus Evora; assembly was at Hethel, Norfolk, United Kingdom. Its contemporaries in the catalogue — the Nissan Z, the Tesla Cybertruck, the Kia EV6 — show what else the money bought that year. Nearby in the Lotus catalogue sit the Lotus 100T and the Lotus 101.