Post by Admin on Jun 12, 2016 22:33:55 GMT -5
Article came out last year; but worth posting anyway!
www.roadandtrack.com/new-cars/future-cars/news/a26263/lotus-elise-returns-to-us-2020/
For a brief few years, U.S. buyers lived in a golden age, able to buy Lotus's ferociously lightweight Elise sportscar brand-new and fully-assembled. First appearing on the U.S. market in 2004, the divine Elise stuck around until 2011, when Lotus had to withdraw it from our market due to non-compliant airbags. (Shown above, a 2012 model)
It's been dark days since 2011, though. Our nation became an Elise-less America. But there's hope for the eventual end of our nightmare: Lotus CEO Jean-Marc Gales tells Automotive News that the next-generation Elise, due out in 2020, will be U.S. compliant.
That's bad news for fans of the current Elise, the Series 2 which was introduced in the U.K. in 2001 and brought stateside three years later. Gales insists that making this current model comply with U.S. regulations would be impossible. "We'd need smart airbags, plus side airbags and to change the whole front crash structure. It would add 100kg [220 lbs]," he told Automotive News.
We love the fact that a 220-pound weight gain is a bridge too far for Lotus. And while we're sad to hear that it'll be 2020 before an Elise returns to our shores—and let's face it, a lot could happen to Lotus, and the car market as a whole, in that time—a future Elise is better than no Elise at all.
www.roadandtrack.com/new-cars/future-cars/news/a26263/lotus-elise-returns-to-us-2020/
For a brief few years, U.S. buyers lived in a golden age, able to buy Lotus's ferociously lightweight Elise sportscar brand-new and fully-assembled. First appearing on the U.S. market in 2004, the divine Elise stuck around until 2011, when Lotus had to withdraw it from our market due to non-compliant airbags. (Shown above, a 2012 model)
It's been dark days since 2011, though. Our nation became an Elise-less America. But there's hope for the eventual end of our nightmare: Lotus CEO Jean-Marc Gales tells Automotive News that the next-generation Elise, due out in 2020, will be U.S. compliant.
That's bad news for fans of the current Elise, the Series 2 which was introduced in the U.K. in 2001 and brought stateside three years later. Gales insists that making this current model comply with U.S. regulations would be impossible. "We'd need smart airbags, plus side airbags and to change the whole front crash structure. It would add 100kg [220 lbs]," he told Automotive News.
We love the fact that a 220-pound weight gain is a bridge too far for Lotus. And while we're sad to hear that it'll be 2020 before an Elise returns to our shores—and let's face it, a lot could happen to Lotus, and the car market as a whole, in that time—a future Elise is better than no Elise at all.
