Forums: Lotus Elan

HETHEL, England — British sports car maker Lotus will build a battery-powered performance car, according to a Thursday report in the Financial Times. The technology used in the Lotus car will be similar to that in the Chevrolet Volt, with a fuel-powered range extender that works after the battery charge has depleted. The car is reportedly expected to achieve 300 to 400 miles on a single tank of gas. The Financial Times quoted chief executive Michael Kimberley as saying: "Don't be surprised to see an electric Lotus shortly. We are working on the technologies that will go behind it." Lotus...

The week's not off to a great start for Microsoft. On Monday, a European court upheld almost $1 billion in antitrust penalties against the software maker. A day later, it's IBM that is taking aim at Microsoft with the release of a free office software suite called Lotus Symphony. IBM said Tuesday that Symphony, based on open source software from the OpenOffice.org project, will be made available as a free download essentially to whoever wants it. The package contains a word processor called Lotus Symphony Documents, as well as Lotus Symphony Spreadsheets and Lotus Symphony Presentations. IBM is calling the...

Lotus has released details about the new bio-ethanol-powered Exige 265E - the most powerful road version of the Lotus Exige ever, which we covered briefly yesterday. And we've driven it -- see links below.The research vehicle is a true Lotus -- it weighs just 930 kg unladen -- and is called the Lotus Exige 265E: 265 indicates the approximate horsepower and is consistent with the naming strategy of other one-off and limited run Lotus variants such as the Lotus Sport Exige 240R. and the E indicates the environmentally favourable bio-ethanol E85 fuel containing 85 per cent ethanol alcohol and 15...

OK he talks a bit of smack. But I give him a pass since if anyone has ever seen Top Gear, you know it blows away any US car show. Top Gear-Lotus vs Apacheyep, needs decent bandwith