Lotus has been having issues with identity and direction for some time now. Certain factors — including poor leadership — have left the storied carmaker’s lineup fairly stale for several years. Now, though it appears that things might at least be going somewhere.Jean-Marc Gales, Lotus CEO as of a few months ago has presented a new business plan that includes a Lotus four door sedan and a crossover SUV, in a meeting attended by both parent company Proton’s CEO Datuk Abdul Harith Abdullah and Lotus COO Aslam Farikullah.
Lotus is just about the last company you’d expect to build a crossover (other than Morgan, perhaps). But just about everyone from Porsche to Jaguar is jumping on that bandwagon, and if it keeps Lotus afloat, so be it. As for the sedan, there actually was a Lotus four door sedan concept back when the company was getting a little concept-happy back in 2010 (seen here).
The sleek four-door hybrid was called the Eterne and while Lotus may not be the first name in sedans either, let’s not forget the incredible Carlton of the early 1990s. Given their engineering and consulting experience, Lotus has shown plenty of times that they can take just about anything and make it interesting. There’s no reason they can’t do the same with their next crop of models.
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