Lotus: Tiny car, strong Ethos

Lotus' Ethos. Photo / Supplied

Lotus' battery-powered baby dubbed City Concept could hit production as early as 2013. The flex fuel EV micro will be called Ethos and is in development in Malaysia with Lotus' parent company Proton, says Lotus spokesman Alastair Florance.

Ethos was revealed under the name City Concept as part of the company's brassy roll-out of six examples at last year's Paris motor show, but faded into the background against a string of five new sport models.

A far cry from the Lotus sporting pedigree, but still light in weight and emissions, the Ethos marks a new direction - but adds to a more complete range, that includes new takes on old badges, fresh-faced sporty newcomers and even a four-door to chase down Porsche's Panamera and Aston Martin's Rapide.

Small cars with tiny carbon footprints are becoming an increasingly useful addition to carmakers' arsenals - achieving the obvious enviro-cred and helping to drag down the emissions average of the overall range.

Although it must be noted that the Elise - despite its fleet-footed ways and cracking point-to-point pace - only produces 149g/km of CO2. Ethos will produce just 60g.

The Ethos will provide 60km of zero emissions motoring in electric mode, and will use the company's Range Extender engine to push that out to 500km when the car needs to be driven "for long periods".

The sole purpose of this tiny 1.2-litre built by Spanish Fagor Ederlan is to generate power for the car's lithium-ion batteries. The three-cylinder engine can run on petrol, ethanol or methanol.

"It will lower our corporate fleet average, but that's certainly not its primary role," said Florance, adding that it was a distinct possibility that a petrol-only version, or even a electric-only version for city use were feasible.

BMW last week announced that its first electric vehicle, the i3, will also use a range extender engine.

Proton could produce the car under another name - it too released a three-car EV concept family last year at Geneva called Emas, one of which bears more than a passing resemblance to the Ethos, albeit with five doors.

"It [Ethos] will be a Lotus-badged car," Florance said, "but I believe there will be a Proton version. We'll be working extensively on the engineering, so the Lotus will be very much a Lotus."

The Ethos will be similar in size to Toyota's Yaris or a Peugeot 1006, not far over three metres in length.

A quick crawl over the concept in Lotus' design studio revealed rear seats that could fit adult passengers, but would be a bit tight on legroom.

There were TFT-LCD screens in that dash displaying information normally expected from a traditional gauge cluster. Controls for air-conditioning were moved to the driver's door next to window controls, and an iPod/iPhone docked straight into the centre console, a sweeping curve that was possibly structural.

Aston Martin has also moved into the small car arena, although it has taken a 1.3-litre Toyota iQ, rebuilt at its own factory with a tarted-up interior and suitable Aston touches like bonnet vents. But as a petrol-only proposition, the Cygnet is unlikely to cross swords with the Ethos. Price guidance is a long way off, but Lotus has revealed some of the new model's vital statistics.

Figures for the car are fairly impressive - and while it won't be in any position to put larger and thirstier vehicles in their place such as the existing Elise and Exige models, it still boasts a potential top speed of 170km/h and will weigh less than 1400kg with batteries on board.

It will be based around a single-speed, rear wheel drive train, and hit the legal limit in nine seconds. The Range Extender engine will make 35kW, with 54kW (continuous) on offer from the 240Nm electric engine - and all with a whispering 60g/km of C02.