Back in the Nineties, after Lotus introduced its original Elise, the company made it known that its new sportscar platform had been designed to be easily adapted to different applications and could accommodate different powertrains. Companies that were interested in the platform and wanted to use their own powertrains were welcome to contract with Lotus for use of the Elise’s underpinnings. Over the years, it spawned race cars, concept cars and the production of the Opel GT, Vauxhall VX220, and the Tesla Roadster.

Now that Lotus finally has its first all-new car in 14 years and several hundred Evoras have already been delivered to customers, the same offer is again on the table. This time around the Lotus Engineering team even have the Evora chassis ready to carry an electric powertrain.

The versatile architecture is made largely from aluminum extrusions which can be trimmed off in different sizes, allowing the chassis to be adjusted for length and width as required. Presently, no company has adopted the Evora’s architecture. However, given Tesla’s success in using the older Elise as a starting point and the more accommodating size of the Evora – it should be even more attractive to future customers.