British marque Lotus announced that the production of the Elise, Exige, and Evora sports cars has come to an end. Dubbed as the ‘3Es’ trio, the three outgoing sports cars help put the name of the car brand on the map especially with the famous Lotus Elise.
The Lotus team with the trio
A total of 51,738 units of the said sports cars were built over 26 years. 35,124 of which were delivered by the Elise. Meanwhile, the Exige managed to sell 10,497 units since its debut in 2000. Lastly, the youngest of the 3Es trio, the Evora, contributed 6,117 units sold for the car brand.
“First of all, I would like to thank the Lotus team who have worked on the Elise, Exige, and Evora over the years and who are now transferring to Emira and Evija manufacturing. I would also like to convey enormous gratitude to all the customers of the Elise, Exige, and Evora over the last 26 years for their passion, enthusiasm, and support,” said Lotus Cars Managing Director Matt Windle.
From left to right: Evora, Elise, Exige
However, this is not the end for Lotus. The discontinuation of the three sports cars marks the beginning of a new era. Moving forward, the British marque will be offering the Evija and Emira. The Lotus Evija is the brand’s first all-electric hypercar, while the Emira is its last model powered by an internal combustion engine (ICE).
Additionally, Chinese automaker Geely will relaunch the Lotus brand with an all-electric SUV called the Type 132. It will go down as Lotus’ first-ever SUV production model, with reports suggesting that a coupe version will follow. The Lotus Type 132 is slated to debut in 2022.
The last production units of the Elise, Exige, and Evora are reserved for Lotus’ growing heritage collection. Included in the collections are the Elise Sport 240 Final Edition finished in yellow, Exige Cup 430 Final Edition in Heritage Racing Green, and Evora GT430 Sport in Dark Metallic Gray.
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