2010 Paris: Lotus City Car Concept hints at future urban range-extending EV

Lotus City Car Concept

Prior to the 2010 Paris Motor Show, Lotus talked about the ‘dawn of a new era’ for the company and with five new concept cars, a new era it was. The new Louts Elite concept showed a new GT car; the Lotus Elise concept showed a more ‘grown up’ version of the sports car; the Lotus Elan concept previewed a model that would most likely replace the Evora; the Lotus Esprit concept previewed the next-generation that will debut sometime in 2013; and the Lotus Eterne concept showed a sedan planned for production in 2015.

But hiding under all those big debuts was a little City Car concept (pictured here). The concept, which has a possible name known as Ethos, is an urban range-extending electric city vehicle. Power comes from an electric motor that produces 72-hp and 177 lb-ft of torque. Weighing in at less than 3,086 pounds (not very Lotus-like), the City Car has the ability to run from 0 to 62 mph in 9 seconds with a top speed of 106 mph. With a full charge of its 14.8 kWh battery pack, the compact urban vehicle can travel a total of 37 miles until the charge runs out. Once the battery pack is depleted, a flex-fuel 1.2L 3-cylinder engine kicks in making 47-hp and increasing range to 310 miles.

The City Car concept (aka Ethos) is still not confirmed for production but if given the thumbs up, price s will start around $30,000.

We guess the Aston Martin Cygnet better look out.

Lotus City Car Concept:

– By: Omar Rana