Lotus confirms electric SUV plans, names its final ICE car

Lotus has revealed a clear picture of its future, with the British sports car brand announcing its final internal combustion engine model before going completely electric — and also offering an SUV.

Though it never specifically mentions the three letters, at its Driving Tomorrow event Lotus said one of its four new vehicle platforms — this one dubbed Evolution — would be the basis for an “all-new range of lifestyle vehicles” which will “catapult Lotus into a new era of higher retail volumes and significant revenues”.

It also revealed its final ICE model will be named Emira.

Though details won’t be known until its reveal on July 6, Lotus says there will be a choice of engines, none of which will be a hybrid and sits on architecture named Elemental.

Teaser images indicate it bares a resemblance to the upcoming Evija hypercar, which sits on the Extreme platform and will go into production later this year.

The fourth architecture is named E-Sports and is being developed in partnership with Renault’s performance brand Alpine to create an electric sports car.

Though owned by Chinese parent company Geely, Lotus stressed its models are designed, engineerd and built in the UK.