Lotus Wants To Sell The Elise's Platform To Other Automakers

Lotus is discontinuing their current lineup of little roadsters and track cars, to make way for their electrified future. The British carmaker recently unveiled two Final Edition models for their remaining car lineup, which includes the Elise and much faster Exige. They also recently released teasers for their last gas-powered vehicle, the Emira. Since the upcoming Emira and the Evija will be underpinned by new platforms, Lotus stated that they are open to selling the old Elise platform to other companies. Lotus's managing director confirmed this, "If the right project and right partner came along, I don't see why not. It's a wonderful car."

Lotus has done this sort of thing in the past. Tesla used the first-generation Elise chassis to produce the original Roadster two-seater. Even farther back, Lotus sold the parts of one of its first vehicles, the Seven, to Caterham in 1973. In fact, Caterham still makes that same car, called the Caterham 7.

Since many fans are sad that the fun and lightweight Elise is going away, it will be great to see it under a new company. Possible partners that could utilize the Elise platform could be Caterham's new parent company, VT Holdings, and another company called Radford, which announced that an Elise-based car is in the works. The Evora is already gone, and it won't be long until the Elise and Exige also disappear as we know it.

Source Credits: Lotus, Motor1