The Esprit is not an entirely new model and they are intending to launch their next generation model come Spring 2013 where Lotus said that they are planning to give it a Toyota V8 powered engine that is capable of pushing out 611 horses and 720Nm of torque. This would mean that you could get the Esprit to 100 km/h from a stand still in just 3.4 seconds.
The Lotus Esprit is widely regarded as the icon for the company as it has always come with a supercar persona and hence many are anticipating how the company is going to re-design the next generation considering the current rebranding process, and if looks are anything to go by, we surely like what we see.
For starters, it has been ‘missing’ for about 5 years now and they will be trying to keep the originality of the Esprit when it comes out in 2013 where it will come as mentioned with the Toyota powered 5.0-liter V-8 engine which is mid-mounted and comes with a rear-wheel drive system. This engine will be paired with a 7 speed automatic transmission gearbox which could be manually controlled through its paddle shifters.
One who is looking at the new model would agree that it looks more like a Lamborghini than a Ferrari but this is as far as the similarities lie because apart from that, everything else is very much Lotus.
The Esprit would most likely be the only niche model left when Lotus completes its rebranding exercise but they are set to push the competition up another notch by offering hybrid powertrain with this one as option. Speculations are that it will be sold about USD140,000 to $165,000 so it will not be a cheap buy but having said that, it will be competing with the likes of the supercars.
