The spiritual successor to the Lotus Esprit has been spotted testing for the first time ahead of its 2021 debut.
Development prototypes of the upcoming £100k-plus sports car have been seen close to Lotus’s headquarters in Hethel, Norfolk, disguised by Evora body shells that have been widened to accommodate the modified chassis.
Although these early prototypes don’t give any clues towards the new car’s styling, it’s widely expected to adopt the design language seen on the 1973bhp Evija electric hypercar.
Exclusively revealed by Autocar earlier this year, the reborn Esprit will be the first all-new Lotus production car for twelve years.
It’s set to use a V6 powertrain sourced from Toyota, supplemented by a hybrid system developed in-house that could push power north of 500bhp. In that case, it would eclipse the 410bhp Evora GT410, although the car is expected to sit above it in the Lotus line-up rather than replace it outright.
