Lotus Evora Facelift heading for Frankfurt

Lotus Evora Facelift expected at Frankfurt based on the Mansory Evora (above)

It’s a ‘back to reality’ story from Lotus, for a change, with the news that, possibly, they are going to take a facelift Lotus Evora to the Frankfurt Motor Show.

Of course, we’ve been here before.

Earlier in the year we reported that Lotus were taking an Evora with a facelift off to Geneva, but that turned out to be a Mansory version of the Evora, seemingly with the blessing of Lotus as it appeared on their stand.

We’d also reported earlier that Lotus had decided it was time to make the interior of the Evora – which, certainly in terms of fit and finish, is on a par with a 1977 Austin Allegro Vanden Plas – actually start to look as if it belongs in a car costing the thick end of £60k.

To that end Lotus has reportedly enlisted the services of German firm CSI (apt name considering the current interior on the Evora is something of a crime) who have put together some better than half-decent interiors – R8, SLS, Panamera – so they should turn the quality notch up a cog or three.

So it seems likely that Lotus are going to take the cosmetic tweaks Mansory wrought to the exterior of the Evora, throw in a nice Teutonic interior by CSI, and roll the 2012 Lotus Evora at Frankfurt.

Other changes possibly in the offing – although they have been for some time – are the 400bhp Evora with a supercharger bolted on – Lotus Evora R? – and maybe a production version of the Evora 414E we saw at Geneva in 2010.

The hybrid Evora 414E featured a 1.2 litre 47bhp engine designed to run at constant speed as a range-extender to feed the batteries which run the two electric motors – one on each axle. The setup produces 414bhp, giving 0-60mph in a bit over 4 seconds and emissions likely to come in at around 50g/km.

Then again, we may just get news of the next six supercars Dany Bahar has on his wishlist

By Cars UK