Lotus recently confirmed plans to build a Crossover vehicle according to an interview between Autocar and Lotus CEO Jean-Marc Gales. The vehicle should be part of the recent arrangement with Goldstar Heavy Industrial, China to build market and sell Lotus vehicles in China.
The crossover or SUV is scheduled to be produced in 2019 and will initially remain a China only model. But there would always be a chance that it would be made for other regions. The market in China loves crossover vehicles and being the largest market in the world, could be the key to Lotus' long term survival. It would be beneficial for Proton too as Proton owns Lotus. Dividends and bonuses.
Anyway, the crossover vehicle would be a lightweight SUV, keeping with the Lotus mantra of 'lightness'. It would be the size of the Porsche Macan and will be at least 200kg lighter than that SUV with Toyota engines powering it just like the Lotus cars of today. Lotus may dust off the Lotus APX concept SUV from 2006 as a base for this. Ignore the funky tailgate, put on a normal looking one and it would seem production ready. I do like the dashboard photo - it shows that very familliar Proton/Lotus interior. It tells us that Proton parts may be used in the upcoming vehicle which was not denied by the CEO in the interview. Lotus are known to use off the shelf parts for switches, lights and small bits and pieces. This is nothing new as all manufacturers utilise this common parts sharing. I just hope the plastics are better than what we see in a Proton now.
We may see export spec vehicles that could be sold here in the UK and in Malaysia (which also has a large SUV market even with all the controls) too once things are done in right hand drive.
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