Lotus Eco Elise

While all the fuss was being made about the new Lotus Evora sportscar, in a darker corner of the ExCeL exhibition hall a potentially more relevant Lotus was also making its debut. The Eco Elise may sound like a contradiction in terms, but Lotus's little two-seater has always been a relatively efficient car and the Eco version is actually just a technology demonstrator to show what could be done in the future.

Unlike most so-called 'green' cars, this Elise is not all about emissions of CO₂ from the exhaust, but the overall reduction of the greenhouse gas from the life of the car. Sure, Lotus has managed to trim out more weight and fit a green gearchange shift light to the dashboard in a bid to eke more miles out of a tank of fuel, but the Eco Elise represents a shift in thinking, where car manufacturing in itself must be more sustainable. Lotus has gone to extremes to produce this Elise out of locally sourced materials that are also renewable. That includes the use of hemp in the composite body panels and sisal and wool elsewhere. Regardless of its purpose in life, we think this Elise is extremely cool.

Shane O' Donoghue

Tuesday July 29