A new all-electric sports car from Lotus is tipped to be unveiled as soon as 2025, joining the Electre SUV, Emeya sedan, and a future electric mid-size SUV. The new sports car is codenamed Type 135 and was first teased back in 2021. It will serve as a direct rival to the future electric Porsche Cayman and Boxster and should reach the hands of customers in 2027. It will be sold alongside the combustion-powered Emira for a short time before that car is retired in 2028.
Work on the Type 135 has hit a few
roadblocks. For starters, Lotus had initially planned to develop the new sports
car alongside Alpine but the two brands recently parted ways on the project.
Additionally, Lotus was working with British battery startup Britishvolt but
that company spectacularly fell into administration at the start of the year.
Despite these hurdles, Auto Express reports that work on the car is continuing
and that it will ride on a bespoke architecture developed specifically for
electric sports cars. This platform, known simply as ‘E-Sports,’ can support
different battery designs and sizes and has a lightweight rear subframe. It can
also support up to two electric motors at the rear axle.
Many other details about the Type 135
remain shrouded in mystery. Lotus has previously said its electric sports car
platform could support a car with a 2,470 mm wheelbase and a 66.4
kWh battery pack as well as a car with a 2,650 mm wheelbase and
a 99.6 kWh battery. The architecture also gives the brand the flexibility to
either position the battery in the car’s floor or stack it vertically behind
the cabin to give the vehicle a similar weight distribution to a mid-engined
sports car.
The teaser from 2021 wasn’t all that
revealing but did confirm the car will have sharp LED daytime running lights
similar to those of the Emeya. Additionally, it will have pronounced rear
haunches and appears to adopt a familiar shape to traditional mid-engined
sports cars.
