Lotus Is Cooking Up A New Esprit For 2020

The Norfolk-based sports car outfit has its sights set on the McLaren 570S, as it prepares a successor to the legendary Esprit

Hold off on the DJ Khaled memes, as we have a Lotus story to bring you today that doesn’t involve yet another tweaked Elise/Exige/Evora. Nor are we talking about Hethel’s incoming - and arguably inevitable - SUV.

Nope, this time we’re looking at an actual new Lotus of a much more palatable kind for us petrolheads - a supercar. Speaking to Autocar, CEO Jean-Marc Gales revealed that Lotus has two new sports cars are on the way, and one - expected to arrive in 2020 - will be positioned above the Evora. In other words, it’ll be a successor to the Esprit.

Will Lotus resurrect the famous name? We can’t be sure at this stage, but we certainly hope so. The brand announced its intentions to create a new Esprit in 2010, previewed by a concept (below) cooked up as part of the now-infamous ‘five cars’ plan which never came to fruition. On this occasion though, it’s all looking a lot more promising.

Lotus is now owned by Chinese automotive giant Geely, which will be investing heavily in its new property over the next few years. As a result, the company will be in a position to make a car that can “take the Evora a step further” while sticking to the core “lightweight, aerodynamic and handling” attributes people expect from a Lotus sports car.

As for the other sports car, very little is known about that at this stage, although a new Elise seems a likely candidate. Both it, the Esprit successor and the SUV are all expected to borrow technology from Geely-owned Volvo.