California awards $2 million to Lotus Engineering to study lightweight vehicles

Lotus has some very exciting things to celebrate at the 2010 Paris Motor Show – however, Lotus Engineering is celebrating something else today as the state of California awarded the division $2 million research program for a study into efficient, lightweight cars of the future.

“Lotus Engineering will conduct a detailed structural design and analysis of the prototype vehicle from an earlier study to demonstrate it meets the crashworthiness and stringent safety requirements for vehicles sold in the United States,” the company said in a statement.

In April 2010, Lotus Engineering finished the first part of the study, released by the International Council on Clean Transportation in California, which recognized that a reduction in vehicle mass of 38% can be achieved for medium volume vehicles (around 50,000 units a year) with just an increase in 3% in vehicle cost and giving a 23% reduction in fuel consumption.

Earlier this year, Lotus Engineering revealed a 2020 Toyota Venza Concept that showed a commercially viable weight reduction strategy for mainstream passenger cars. The concept was based around the current Toyota Venza crossover and reduced vehicle mass (excluding powertrain) by 38 percent.

2020 Toyota Venza Concept by Lotus Engineering:

– By: Omar Rana