Lotus won't launch any new model lines for the next two years, instead shifting focus to the launch of new range-extender hybrid models in response to waning demand for electric luxury cars.
The brand's new European CEO, Dan Balmer, previously a high-ranking Aston Martin executive and alumni of BMW and Rolls-Royce, confirmed the hiatus on new product launches in his first appearance in the role, following the exit of Mike Johnstone earlier this year.
Following the launch of the Eletre SUV in 2023 and the Emeya saloon this year, Lotus was expected to add a Porsche Macan-sized electric crossover, known as Type 134, in 2025; but this car has been put on hold as the company focuses on achieving "stability" by "getting right-sized" and "understanding the markets we compete in".
Balmer said that instead of launching the smaller electric SUV to market, Lotus would focus on introducing its new 'Hyper Hybrid' REx powertrains to its existing electric cars and wouldn't give a new date for the Type 134's arrival.
"We're not confirming today what the launch timelines are for the next round of products that we're launching, but the market has told us what it wants and when," he explained, referencing Lotus's decision to lower its long-term sales volume ambitions and reverse its decision to go all-electric by introducing REx cars.
"It's right that we take a chance to look at the market and what it wants in the new environment that we find ourselves in, with our industrial strategy and with the products in the marketplace that we want to compete in as well."
The delay to the Type 134 programme means Lotus will continue past the middle of the decade with a four-car line-up comprising the Eletre and Emeya, the Emira petrol sports car and the Evija electric hypercar, which has now finally started reaching customers following extensive pandemic-induced development delays.
Lotus was due to follow the Type 134 with an electric sports car in the vein of the Emira, dubbed the Type 135, but the shift in strategic focus – as well as the constraints imposed by current battery technology – mean that's likely to be pushed back too.
Lotus design chief Ben Payne recently told Autocar that "the technology right now does not really allow you to recreate that product in a convincing way" and that the firm would need lighter, more energy-dense batteries to come on stream before launching a lightweight two-seat EV.
Asked if that car had now been officially deprioritised as part of Lotus's revised product strategy, Balmer said: "It's fair to say that we have to look at what's available to us at the time when we want to launch that programme. We have to look at the technology available to achieve the attributes that are important to us for those products, and at the right time as well. If we were to do it today, then we don't feel we could achieve that."
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Looks like there's a train crash coming down the tracks. Hope I'm wrong but a two tonne Lotus? Made in China? How's that going to work? I know muttering rotters have all been blindsided by these gargantian monsters but, well, it's just not Lotus is it?