Lotus Teases Inspiration From Their Biggest Icon In Their Latest EV Sketch: The Esprit

As much as crossovers sell, a sports car is where Lotus' identity should be

Lotus Type 135 EV sports car
Lotus’ new electric sports car rendering shows strong hints of heritage, even as it clues in to what’s coming in the near future. (Images: Lotus)

Lotus continues its major push toward electric vehicles with a new sports car.

As the Emira gives us one last hurrah into the foray of internal combustion, the automaker is moving full speed toward electric models over the next five years or so. Not only will its cars ride on brand new platforms, but Lotus recently announced a Memorandum of Understanding with Britishvolt to develop battery packs for their new models. Key aspects of the partnership, per Lotus’ official statement, are “fast-charging, optimizing energy and weight reduction.”

The first car Lotus plans to unveil in the next few months is the Type 132 crossover. Following that, we’ll see a Type 133 next year as the company’s “four-door coupe”, then a smaller Type 134 crossover after that.

Finally, we’ll get a production version of what the rendering you see above, dubbed (as I’m sure you can guess) the Type 135. Excluding the Evija hypercar — not that you would, of course — that’s a huge amount of change coming up for the brand, and this particular car channels a lot of the old-school Esprit.

We’re still a few years out from its actual reveal, but I’m especially curious to see how Britishvolt and Lotus can tackle the weight issues EVs face. Lightness has always been a hallmark of the brand, and if the Type 135 can deliver a quick-as-all-get-out, modern take on their classic sports car in its electric transformation, that will be quite an achievement to get excited about. We’ll have to wait and see for specs to actually emerge, but it’s likely we’ll see this new sports car arrive in both single and dual-motor applications to give enthusiasts across the price spectrum a taste of what the brand’s future has to offer.

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It’s not just sports cars or Lotus models, either — there’s quite a bit going on in the electric sphere, including actual work vehicles. Take the Rivian R1T as a case in point, as we recently loaded one up for a maxed out TFLtruck test: