You are probably still admiring Lotus for what they did at the Paris Motor Show this year, taking the stage by storm with five new and amazing car. This new Lotus as we saw it is great, but it actually cost their parent company the Malaysian Proton, nearly a billion dollar! And it’s not all about GTs and supercars either, there’s also tiny city cars in future of Lotus. And it all starts with this concept you see here.
It is simply called the Lotus City Car Concept, and they believe that with their ingenuity and clever engineering methods, they can even turn a boring urban commuter into something fun and interesting.
The Lotus City Car concept provides a showcase for Lotus Engineering’s Electrical and Electronic Integration and Efficient Performance competencies, featuring an advanced series hybrid drivetrain with the Lotus Range Extender engine. The drivetrain, which consists of a single speed transmission, provides the vehicle with an EV range of 60 km, enough for city transportation, with the Range Extender engine enabling longer trips and alleviating “range anxiety”.
So they reckon a total range of 500 km, with batteries fully charged and the range extender working all along. The range extender engine is a 1.2 liter 3-cylinder ethanol-capable unit which only acts as a generator and never actually powers the wheels.
With a total vehicle weight of less than 1400 kg and 240 Nm of torque instantly available, the Lotus City Car concept has class leading acceleration; 0 – 50 km/h in only 4.5 seconds and 0 – 100 km/h in 9 seconds, when operating as an EV under battery power. The top speed of the Lotus City Car concept is 170 km/h, with a charge sustaining top speed of 120 km/h and all this performance is achieved by a drivetrain that returns CO2 emissions of 60 g/km on the ECE-R101 test schedule.
The very best thing about it though, is the design. It is still tiny, but unlike other cars of this sort it does not look like a hideous creature suffering from a horrible disease (take the G-Wizz as a prime example!). This car is designed with the same language that created the new Elise, Elan, Espirit and Elite.
Lotus City Car Concept Specification
| Layout | 3 door, 4 seater, rear wheel drive |
| Drivetrain | Series hybrid drivetrain |
| Range Extender engine | 35 kW, 1.2 litre, 3 cylinder engine |
| Engine fuel | Flex-fuel (methanol, ethanol and petrol) |
| Battery Capacity | 14.8 kWh |
| Power/Torque | 162 kW peak (54 kW continuous)/ 240 Nm |
| 0-50 km/h | 4.5 seconds |
| 0-100 km/h | 9.0 seconds |
| Top speed | 170 km/h |
| Range | 500 km |
| EV range 60 km | |
| CO2 emissions | 60 g/km on the ECE-R101 cycle |
| Weight | Less than 1,400 kg |
| Transmission | Single speed transmission |
