This news was confirmed by Lotus CEO, Dany Bahar who stated in a interview that "Our city car has been confirmed and will be launched in October 2013, we are doing this together with Proton and another OEM*. We will build three versions: one for the Asian market, one for Europe and a sportier one."
The Lotus City Car Concept is based on Giugiaro's Proton EMAS study showcased to us at the Geneva Auto Show this year. It holds a plug-in hybrid power-train with a 1.2-liter three-cylinder range extender engine. The car has a claimed range of 300 miles with an electric range of 37 miles until the range extender kicks in and does 165 miles more, it also gets a CO2 emissions rating under 60 grams per kilometer.
Now for a car of this segment , you would expect a 0-100 km/h time of over 9000 minutes but that's were the car takes the lead doing the task under 9 seconds. This may sound like a sluggish time for a gasoline car but is ample for a hybrid considering the car gets 72-hp and 177 lb-ft of torque from its electric side while the gasoline range extender churns out 47-hp. Not much in a the car weights a little less than less than 3,086 pounds. The City Car Concept also has a top speed of 106 mph.
We think that the car can have a generous market considering it is priced right. Stay tuned to hear more.
*original equipment manufacturer
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