The sporty Elise goes out of production after 25 years.
It will be replaced by the new Emira this July.
The Lotus Elise was launched 25 years ago and to this day, it remains one of the most appreciated. Be it for its styling, performance, or driving dynamics, the Elise is highly regarded. As production ends, Lotus is considering selling the tooling required to build the car.
This is not the first time Lotus “hands over” a model. Back in 1973, Lotus sold the tooling for the Seven (7) to Caterham and they still build it today. It’s possible that the Elise may live on as well.
Lotus Elise | Photo: Lotus
“If the right project and the right partner came along, I do not see why not. It’s a wonderful car,” Lotus managing director Matt Windle told Automotive News Europe. While recently acquired Caterham is in the running to make the purchase, another potential buyer for the Elise is newly revived British coachbuilder Radford.
The decision to move away from the Elise was not made lightly. Up until recently, Lotus was considering keeping the car in production. “We did deliberate around this a long time,” Windle said. “The truth is that the whole of the manufacturing facility at Hethel [Lotus’s factory in England] is being transformed into an automated process. We just did not have the room to produce the Elise.”
The Elise might be done at Lotus but there’s hope it will live on.
