Besides the 2014 Elite, 2013 Elan Concept, 2013 Esprit, 2015 Eterne and 2015 Elise Concept, Lotus also unveiled at the 2010 Paris Motor Show the City Car Concept. The new car uses the latest hybrid drivetrain technology and highlights the adaptability of the drivetrain technology as well as the exceptional capability of Lotus Design. The City Car Concept comes with a single-speed transmission that delivers low emissions, optimised performance as well as electric-only operating range for city use. The drivetrain can deliver an EV range of 60 km, which means that it is more than enough for daily journeys in a crowded city.
Using the so-called Range Extender technology, this allows the City Car to be specified with a smaller, lighter and less expensive battery pack than a regular EV. With a total weight of 1,400 kg and 240 Nm of torque instantly available, the new concept can accelerate from 0 to 50 km/h in 4.5 seconds and to 100 km/h in 9 seconds (this when operating as a pure EV). The top speed of the car 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 1.2 litre, 3 cylinder Lotus Range Extender engine was specifically designed for hybrid vehicle applications, drives a 240 Nm, 54 kW continuous (162 kW peak) generator. With the new Range Extender, the car has a range of 500 km.
Dany Bahar, Chief Executive Officer of Group Lotus said, “Lotus Design has created a vehicle that condenses the essence of Lotus into a low carbon Lotus City Car, with many inspired design touches. The progressive technology from Lotus Engineering gives the car an advanced drivetrain that can be operated in Zero Emissions EV mode or run on its flex-fuel engine.”
