Lotus City Car Concept

Lotus is currently on developing a new life full of amazing supercars, but they’re also, even though reluctantly, working on small city cars so the green party thinks they actually care about the environment!

Here’s one of their plans for future, and it’s an electric range-extended city car.

The drivetrain, which consists of a single speed transmission, provides the vehicle with an EV range of 60 km, then the range extender which is a 1.2 liter 3-cylinder ethanol-capable unit kicks in charging the batteries. Lotus claim this car has a realistic range of 500 km and potential top speed of 170 km/h.

With a total vehicle weight of less than 1400 kg and 240 Nm of torque instantly available, the Lotus City Car concept has class leading acceleration; 0 – 50 km/h in only 4.5 seconds and 0 – 100 km/h in 9 seconds, when operating as an EV under battery power.

The top speed of the Lotus City Car concept 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 Lotus City Car concept provides a showcase for Lotus Engineering’s Electrical and Electronic Integration and Efficient Performance competencies, featuring an advanced series hybrid drivetrain with the Lotus Range Extender engine