As part of their future plans, there will be 5 models coming in from Lotus Cars Ltd starting spring 2013. Christian Pauketat, the Territory Manager for South and East Asia for the company, the Lotus Esprit will be the first to be launched for the international market which will start production at the end of next year and will start selling the following spring.
2 to 3 months after the launch, the model will be introduced into our market while the other models will follow suit in the next 2 years. The Lotus Esprit comes with a 5.0 liter V8 pressure-charged engine that gets up to 617 horses and is part of the 5 new models unveiled by Lotus recently. The other models are Lotus Elan, the Lotus Elite, the new generation of the Lotus Elise and Lotus Eterne.
At the moment, Lotus are selling the Evora, the Exige, the Europa and the Elise which will be phased out once the new model is launched. Pauketat, who was with Porsche previously said that the company aims to enhance the brand image where they are looking to position the brand with supercar brand Ferrari. The company is targeting to sell 1,000 units of the Esprit the first year of its launch.
To date, Lotus produces 2,5000 units worldwide and with the latest re-branding and re-positioning of the brand, the company is targeting to increase the production number to 8,000 units once all the 5 units are launched, which is expected to complete by the 2015. In Malaysia, Lotus sells about 20 to 40 cars each year and the company is targeting to roll out 100 units once all the models are launched.