Gales: Lotus SUV Under Consideration
Is it possible to apply Colin Chapman’s lightness philosophy to SUVs? Lotus believes it could, should the storied automaker enter the game.
According to Reuters, Group Lotus chief Jean-Marc Gales said that his company’s next model may indeed be an SUV. However, unlike Jaguar, Aston Martin, Bentley and other high-end luxury brands considering the same, Lotus doesn’t intend to follow the leader, instead opting to “reinvent” the SUV in its image:
We’d do an SUV that is very light, very fast on the track and has outstanding handling. I’m a bit torn between an SUV and a four-door sports car — but in the end I can see that the SUV has the bigger market.
An SUV would likely help turn things around for Lotus — now under ownership by Malaysian automaker Proton — having lost $108 million in FY 2014 as Gales, who also handled marketing for Volkswagen and was second-in-command at Peugeot, began to right the ship toward a return to profit by 2017 at the latest.
Seattle-based writer, blogger, and photographer for many a publication. Born in Louisville. Raised in Kansas. Where I lay my head is home.
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My head and heart say no to this idea. They´d better spend the money on making their existing cars as brilliant to own as they are to drive.
I have no idea of what a Lotus SUV is all about. They don't have facilities to make a lot of cars anyway. I'm all confused, as should be obvious by now.
...there's nothing anathematic about a lotus SUV; they already designed one ten years ago (the APX concept) and that's but one example of myriad non-sports-car projects they've engineered over the decades, both as in-house experimental projects and consulting engineer projects for other manufacturers...heck, colin chapman's personal car in the late seventies (the elite M50) was a four-seat hatchback GT, available with an automatic transmission to boot... en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lotus_APX ...regardless of application, lotus' common theme remains lightness and exemplary chassis dynamics...
They need two versions. One that competes with Bowler on track. And one that merely looks the part but is more practical and costs less.