Malaysia’s Utasan newspaper reports Lotus is planning on expanding its lineup with a crossover and a sedan.
The two new models were announced by Jean-Marc Gales, Lotus’ new CEO, at a conference held earlier this week in Malaysia. The new additions to the lineup are part of Gales’ ambitious plan to give Lotus a much-needed overhaul by renewing its current models and launching several new ones over the next couple of years. Ultimately, Gales hopes to boost Lotus’ annual sales and increase its presence in lucrative markets such as the United States and China.
When the new models will arrive in showrooms was not revealed by Utasan. Similarly, technical details are being kept under wraps so it’s impossible to know whether the cars will be developed from scratch or if they will ride on an existing platform borrowed from another automaker.
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As Gales pointed out during the conference, the idea of a sports sedan isn’t new at Lotus: The company tuned Ford Cortinas in the 1960s and it built a highly-modified version of the Opel Omega from 1990 to 1992. At the time, the Lotus Omega earned the distinction of being the world’s fastest full-production sedan.
More recently, former CEO Dany Bahar introduced a sleek sedan concept called Eterne (pictured) at the 2010 Paris Motor Show. The Eterne was slated to reach production but it was put on an indefinite hiatus when Bahar was ousted from the company in June of 2012.
While Lotus is entirely new to the world of crossovers, the APX concept that was presented to the public at the 2006 edition of the Geneva Motor Show previewed what a Lotus-badged soft-roader could look like. The APX was not very well received by brand enthusiasts, and Gales hinted the upcoming crossover will not look anything like the show car.
