Lotus Cars Reverses All Electric Future with Focus 2030 Strategy to Bring Back Hybrid V8 Supercars and Internal Combustion Engines to Support Global Market Demand
Lotus Cars has officially reversed course on its promise for an all electric future. As reported, the British manufacturer has unveiled a new plan entitled Focus 2030 that will bring internal combustion and hybrid powertrain systems back into its global production strategy. Based on Lotus official documents, the turn is a direct answer to a market that still prefers traditional gasoline engines "feel" among its enthusiast base.
At the core of the new plan is the Hybrid X architecture; this architecture has already seen production within the Eletre X crossover and will be the foundation of all of future performance models, as Lotus has a flagship V8 hybrid supercar due to arrive in 2028 (Type 135) that it plans to produce in Europe to preserve its brand image, making the vehicle the lightest and most powerful model in Emira s history. In addition, Lotus will also be updating its current V8 Sports Car the Emira in time for its own V8, which will have a supposed 986 horsepower rating in the Type 135.
While introducing all of these new vehicles and updates for 2028, Lotus plans to abandon the 150000 unit annual target from the previous strategy. The new strategy will target only 30000 units per year and the decision for additional internal combustion models was said to "support the brand s core customer and their need for traditional ICE," while infrastructure for electric vehicles still matures.
