Composite-bodied Lotus Emira named “New Car of the Year”

The composite-bodied Lotus Emira, the last Lotus (Hethel, U.K.) gas-powered sports car, has collected another accolade by being named the “New Car of the Year” at the annual AM Awards 2023, held in London, an event that promotes automotive dealership businesses and services.

To win this award, the Lotus Emira was voted for by both motor retail managers and the AM judging panel. “Clearly the Emira is being seen as a start of a new chapter for Lotus and its dealers,” says Tim Rose, editor, AM Online. “It is the most accomplished Lotus road car yet, balancing a high level of driver engagement with the practicality of an everyday sports car, and our audience — including dealers with rival brands — is now certainly excited about the Lotus brand’s future. Emira will attract new customers to Lotus and this will give the carmaker great foundations for growth.”

“The Emira has won a number of accolades around the world, but this award from AM is particularly special as it was voted for by the well informed AM judging panel and a discerning automotive industry, including retailers, dealers and senior management,” says Geoff Dowding, executive director, commercial operations, who received the award on behalf of Lotus at the event. “Not only is the Emira is a brilliant sports car and the best in breed but also this award reinforces the confidence and excitement that the industry has for Lotus as it rapidly moves towards the EV [electric vehicle] future with the Lotus Evija and Lotus Eletre.”

Powered by either a 3.5-liter supercharged V6 engine or a 2.0-liter turbocharged “i4” through a manual, automatic or dual clutch transmission, the Lotus Emira accelerates to 0-60 miles per hour in 4.2 seconds before reaching a top speed of 180 miles per hour.

The Emira is manufactured at Lotus’ global headquarters for sports car and hypercar operations in Hethel, Norfolk, U.K. Subassembly manufacturing for the aluminum chassis is at Lotus Advanced Structures in Norwich.

The Lotus Emira is one of three high-tech performance cars built by Lotus, along with the Eletre, an all-electric hyper SUV and the Evija, an all-electric British hypercar.