Geneva show: Lotus unveils green Exige

LOTUS showed its green credentials in Geneva by revealing a development version of the Exige that runs on alternative fuels – including a synthetic methanol that is still up to 20 years from production.

On the performance side of things, the Lotus Exige 270E Tri-fuel is claimed to be the most powerful “road” Exige built – although it is only a concept car built by Lotus Engineering to show that ‘green’ vehicles can still produce exceptional performance.

Powered by a development of the existing Toyota 1.8-litre supercharged engine with air-to-air intercooler, the Exige 270E Tri-fuel produces 201kW at 8000rpm and 260Nm at 5500rpm running on a mixture of petrol, bio-ethanol and methanol. It accelerates from 0-96km/h in 3.9 seconds.

Left: Europa SE and Exige 270E Tri-fuel (bottom).

Lotus is working on developing the synthetic methanol fuel, which it describes as an alcohol-based fuel derived renewably from the atmosphere.

Lotus says it could be introduced in four to five years, but concedes that the supply infrastructure will not exist for 15-20 years.

Lotus also teased Geneva visitors with a peak inside the company’s long-awaited “Project Eagle” mid-size sports car that will debut at the British motor show in July.

The company showed the car’s deformable aluminium front-end module containing the dual aluminium wishbone front suspension, steering assembly and four-piston calliper cross-drilled disc brakes.

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