Lotus mulling plan to “add lightness” to SUV segment

Lotus founder Colin Chapman was known for his philosophy of “adding lightness” to make the company’s sports cars faster, and it looks like the brand’s future could involve applying that ethos to an SUV model.

The proposal comes straight from the brand’s current CEO, Jean-Marc Gales, in an interview with the Reuters news agency earlier this week at the Geneva auto show.

Low-volume carmakers like Lotus have a hard time turning a profit, and the easiest way to turn that around is to introduce a model designed for mass appeal. These days, that tends to mean an SUV. Gales’ suggestion follows similar recent moves by other Brit manufacturers: Aston Martin showed an SUV concept at the Geneva show, and Bentley confirmed its own future SUV, the fantastically-badly named Bentayga, earlier in the year at the Detroit auto show.

Gales promised that if Lotus goes through with the plan, it would “reinvent the SUV segment,” which is exciting, because we’ve never heard a car company say that about a forthcoming model. But seriously, if any can build a truly track-ready SUV or crossover, it’s gotta be Lotus.

The last time Lotus toyed with the idea of a utility vehicle was in 2006, when it April Fooled car lovers with the Elise Load Lugga pickup, pictured here.

Lotus Elise Load Lugga