Lotus Evora Hybrid waiting on UK government funds

How many prototypes Lotus builds of the Evora 414E will depend on whether it gets money from the British government's Technology Strategy Board. The TSB funds and supports forays into a broad range of initiatives, including working with Peugeot on fuel cells and Ford on electric vehicles. Lotus, in partnership with three other companies, created the 47-horsepower range-extending engine in the Evora 414E as part of a winning project for the TSB's Limo-Green initiative.

Reports indicate that Lotus awaits a £23 million ($35.5M U.S.) disbursement for that project and another, part of which will go to fund development of the 407-horsepower concept car. If it gets the money it will be able to build two cars, otherwise there will only be one. That's good because this sounds more like a matter of timeline and not a risk to the project itself – the possibilities of Lotus adding its expertise to the pool of electric-car engineering is too good to let die.



[Source: Autocar]