Lotus literally shocked Paris Motor Show by revealing their future plans, which includes a new super saloon we’ll talk about later, and this, the new generation of the Elise. I know it’s just a concept car for now, and it won’t arrive until 2015, but my God it’s awesome! All that geekiness, that stupid smiley face of the Elise is just gone, GONE! And the new one looks utterly magnificent.

And the great looks is just the beginning. Lotus says this “grown up” Elise will get a forced-induction 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine, with no less than 320 hp, way more than the current car. Now you might be worry that the Elise is changing face as an affordable sportscar into an expensive supercar.

But you’d be wrong! Although the new Elise will definitely belong to a higher class, they will also offer it with less powerful and more affordable engines as well. Even the full-fat model is said to have a starting price of around $55,000 which is not bad for something this good.

The new Elise will comes as standard with features like Stop-start and six-speed manual transmission, while the dual-clutch seven-speed will become available as an option later on. It will also remain a lightweight vehicle as its key characteristic that results in better performance, efficiency and handling. They say it will be able to go from nought to 62 mph in 4.3 seconds.

Other features of the new Elise include carbon fiber interior with a Ferrari-style LED progressive gearshift change-up display at the top of the wheel rim, graphic rendering of race circuits for track-day use, and mirrors instead of cameras. The last two are not likely to make it into the production model though!

According to Lotus CEO Dany Bahar, “The Elise 2015 will also be class-leading in terms of performance and efficiency, but it will do more than that — it will take the Elise model to the forefront of its class across the board.”