Lotus City Car coming in 2013?

The Lotus City Car concept was very striking when it was displayed in KLIMS 2010. Many people was wondering whether it will make it into production or not, but now we have an answer! It has been confirmed that the production model will be launched in October 2013. It will be a project together with Proton, which I suppose is the Proton EMAS, and another car manufacturer to share the development cost.

This is certainly a hot hatch with blacken roof and aggressive design from front to back. The size of the Lotus City Car concept is roughly the size of a Perodua Viva, but slightly wider. So we can expect it to be roughly the same size when it’s in production.

The 4-seaters Lotus City Car concept weighted at 1,400 kg and powered by a front mounted, range-extending gasoline engine and a rear mounted electric motor powering the rear axle. The battery is fitted underneath the cabin. Total power output is a staggering 220bhp and 240 Nm of torque, impressive for a little car like the City Car! Range on electric power alone is 60 km while the range-extending 46bhp 1.2cc petrol engine, which is a flex-fuel power plant that can also run on ethanol and methanol increases the distance to  500 km!

Pictures from worldcarfans

It should be very interesting to see Lotus come out with a production compact car where the rest of its product is sports car.

Written by Simon Har

Layout:

3-door, 4-seater, rear-wheel drive
Drivetrain Series hybrid drivetrain
Range extender engine 35 kW, 1.2-litre, 3-cylinder engine
Engine fuel Flex-fuel (methanol, ethanol and petrol)
Battery Capacity 14.8 kWh
Power/Torque 162 kW peak (54 kW continuous)/240 Nm, 0-50 km/h  4.5 seconds, 0-100 km/h  9.0 seconds
Top speed 170km/h
Range 500 km
EV range 60km
CO2 emissions 60g/km on the ECE-R101 cycle
Weight Less than 1400 kg
Transmission Single-speed transmission