Is it time to say goodbye to the Lotus Evora?

By Stephen Edelstein Updated September 25, 2014

Bad news, car fans. It may be time to pour one out for the Lotus Evora, and possibly the entire Lotus brand, in the U.S.

The Lotus Evora will soon be dropped from the U.S. market, Car and Driver reports, leaving dealers to sell nothing except track-only versions of the Elise and Exige.

This unfortunately isn’t too much of a surprise. The Evora was already living on borrowed time.

The 2014 Evora was sold under a 12-month exemption to a rule requiring smart airbags. It’s expired, and Lotus reportedly has no plans to refit the car with this added safety equipment.

A similar regulatory issue killed the street-legal versions of the Elise and Exige back in 2011. Given Lotus’ low sales volumes, the cost of re-engineering a car for a single market just doesn’t add up.

So if you want a new Lotus, but don’t want to drive it while wearing a helmet, you’ll have to pick from leftover 2014 models.

Related: The Lotus Elise S Cup is a hot car you can’t get in the U.S.

When it first arrived in the U.S. in 2010, the Evora was seen as an opportunity for Lotus to avoid the situation it’s currently in by growing its customer base.

Bigger than the existing Elise and Exige, the Evora was supposed to be an easier car to live with, balancing sportiness with civility.

However, the Evora didn’t turn out to be the sales success many were hoping for, and Lotus has been in a holding pattern ever since an ambitious plan to reinvent the brand with up to five new models collapsed.

There are only vague plans for new models at the moment, we may not see a replacement for the Evora for quite awhile.

Hopefully U.S. Lotus dealers will be able to get by selling track-only cars like the Elise S Cup R for the time being.

Stephen Edelstein

Contributing Editor

Stephen is a freelance automotive journalist covering all things cars. He likes anything with four wheels, from classic cars…

Cars

Hyundai, Kia say they are not in talks with Apple about EV

Hyundai and Kia have said they are not in discussions with Apple over the development of a so-called “Apple Car.”

Rumors have been swirling in recent weeks about Hyundai and sister-company Kia discussing a potential collaboration with Apple regarding an electric vehicle (EV) with advanced autonomous capabilities.

Cars

DeLorean could could make a comeback as an electric car

The DeLorean DMC-12 sports car made famous by the Back to the Future franchise could make a comeback as an electric vehicle. A Texas-based company currently owns the rights to the stainless-steel sports car, and has been working for years to bring it back. The original plan was to use a conventional gasoline engine, but now an electric DeLorean is a real possibility, the company said in a blog post.

DeLorean production ended in 1982, and bringing back a car from that period would normally be impossible, because it wouldn't meet current safety and emissions standards. However, the new DeLorean Motor Company has lobbied for the Low Volume Motor Vehicle Manufacturers Act — which is part of the Fixing America's Surface Transportation (FAST) Act — which allows boutique companies to build limited numbers of replica vehicles. The rules were just finalized, but that still left the revived DeLorean firm with a problem.

Cars

Apple’s electric car may be at least five years away, report says

electric car plugged in

After fresh reports of an "Apple Car" began circulating in late December, analysts quickly advised people to pump the brakes on expectations. That may have been justified, as a new Bloomberg report claims Apple will take "at least half a decade" to launch the car, which is widely expected to be electric, possibly with some degree of autonomous driving capability.

While a Reuters report said Apple could launch a car as early as 2024, development work is proceeding more slowly than outsiders might think, according to the Bloomberg report, which cited anonymous sources familiar with the matter. Those sources quoted five to seven years as a more realistic timeline, but also noted that the time frame could change.