Lotus is increasingly building on its 60 year history of creating more with less with all its recent efforts on electric and hybrid drive cars. Besides the powertrain work, Lotus has plenty of experience with lightweight structures. The latest evolution of that is the architecture of the new Evora sports car that debuted at the London Motor Show this summer. Lotus has now won an award for the aluminum chassis of the Evora at the Aluminium 2008 trade fair at Messe Essen in Germany. The Lotus architecture is comprised mainly of aluminum extrusions combined with some casting. The components are in part riveted together but are primarily joined by adhesive bonding. Lotus developed much of the technology while creating the Elise and has created structures with greater strength and lower weight. With the combination of aluminum structures and the expertise that Lotus also has in advanced composites, car makers can tap into a lot of technology to help reduce weight and improve fuel efficiency.


[Source: Lotus]

Click above for high-res gallery of the Lotus Evora

Lotus reportedly has something interesting up its corporate sleeves for an upcoming sports car project. Although nothing official has been announced, some media outlets are predicting that Lotus will offer a hybrid drivetrain on its next vehicle. The words of Lotus' head man Mike Kimberley support this notion when he says that the automaker wants to offer "guilt-free, high performance motoring." Like the recently released Evora, the upcoming sports car, which could be an Esprit revival, will likely use a Toyota-sourced V6 engine. In that case, it wouldn't be a stretch to consider that Lotus would also get Toyota's Hybrid Synergy Drive technology as well.

Considering the fact that Lotus is already hard at work on fuel-saving technology, if this rumor turns out to be true, it would fit right into the British company's new green image. Remember too that Lotus supplies much of the Tesla Roadster's underpinnings, so the marque surely has gained some EV knowledge along the way.

[Source: Autocar]

Click above for high-res gallery of the Lotus Evora

Way back in Febuary of 2006, Lotus seemingly looked past its sports car roots by introducing the "Aluminium Performance Crossover ", or APX concept, which was powered by a supercharged 3.0L DOHC V6. Although the crossover had room for seven people, it weighed just 3,454 pounds -- very light for a vehicle of its size and capabilities. At least Lotus hadn't lost its "add lightness" mantra. And, it appears that it never actually lost sight of its sports car history either, as the Versatile Vehicle Architecture originally introduced over two years ago is now the basis for its brand new Evora.

The Evora appears about as far from the APX concept as one could get, proving that its aluminum-heavy platform is just as versatile as Lotus claims. While we are happy to see Lotus continue its tradition of lightweight performance cars, we can all still hold out hope that an electric vehicle based off the APX concept could see the light of day at some point, as Lotus plans to sell just 2,000 Evoras per year, a small portion of the total VVA-based vehicles the small British manufacturer says it can produce. In the accompanying press release, Lotus says that its still spearheading research into hybrids and full electric vehicles.

[Source: Lotus via Autoblog]