In the past few months, Lotus has been making the headlines, but not for the right reasons. After Proton sold the British sports car maker to DRB-Hicom, CEO Dany Bahar was ousted and its future was once again thrown into doubt.
However, the Renault-Nissan Alliance may be the knight in shining armor that will give the Hethel-based company a new lease on life.
According to a report from British publication Autocar, the Franco-Japanese group is thinking about outsourcing production of a new Alpine sports car and the Infiniti Emerg-e to the ailing carmaker founded by Colin Chapman.
Nissan’s head of design Shiro Nakamura has said that the Emerg-e “could be built in Britain”. Of course, Nissan already has a plant in Sunderland, but what reinforces the Lotus connection is the fact that the working prototype of the Emerg-e is based on the Evora 414E concept.
In contrast to its partner, Renault has not yet confirmed that it will build a production sports car much in the likes of the Alpine A110-50 concept. COO Carlos Tavares said that any decision concerning the resurrection of the Alpine brand will be made by the end of the year.
The good news is that both the Alpine concept, which was unveiled during the Monaco Grand prix, and the Infiniti hybrid are full working prototypes and even took part in the recent Goodwood Festival of Speed hillclimb.
Steve Norman, Renault’s marketing boss, has said that any new Alpine would be mid- or rear-engined. Building both sports cars on the same platform would greatly reduce costs, something important about two models that will sell in small numbers.
Moreover, Lotus, which may be in the red but certainly knows how to make a real sports car and has undertaken quite a number of projects for other manufacturers, would certainly welcome any new business.
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