Lotus recently announced its plans for Elise and Exige ‘Final Edition’ models for the U.S. and the British automaker will soon have only the Evora in its lineup.
Well, it seems that that situation won’t last for long, as Lotus is working on a completely revamped Exige for 2012, and possibly the Elise too.
According to Autocar it won’t bring the usual straight-four, but the Evora’s 3.5-liter V6. If this was BMW we were talking about market differentiation between the two cars would have been a huge problem, but the Hethel is in such a need for a new car that it really doesn’t matter.
No too long ago, world was bouncing around that a V6 Exige test mule was spotted running around last summer. That mule had a significantly wider track as Lotus tried to accommodate the engine in the Exige and the latest, further developed mule pictured here has a significantly lengthened wheelbase.
That Exige mule appears to be almost entirely new from the B-pillars back. At the front, revised front styling is also evident. Lotus design boss Donato Coco says the current Lotus models look “too weak” and he wants to give them a bolder, more aggressive look inspired by the range of new sports cars previewed at last year’s Paris motor show. For 2012, all Lotus models (Exige, Elise and Evora) will benefit from these styling changes and Bahar has previously said more than 150 other changes would be made to each model, including interior quality improvements.
According to Autocar, equipping the Exige with the Evora’s V6 will open up plenty of new directions for Lotus to take the driver-focused sports coupe in. The engine is offered with 276bhp and 345bhp power outputs, and an automatic gearbox can also be mated to it.
The new generation of the Lotus Exige, powered by the Toyota six-cylinder engine, could make its official appearance at this year’s Frankfurt Motor Show, which will take place in September, but this is very improbable.
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