More Reports of Emira Hybrid

Apologies if this article has been posted before as it is over a week old but I didn't find it posted here.

Stupid, click bait headline : "Lotus Emira no longer marked for death" and the article is almost devoid of any facts.

They mention a possible AMG V6 engine as an option - this sounds like pure speculation to me. Although we could fantasize about AMG's V6 PU106B engine, the only V6 AMG have in current production as far as I can tell.

https://www.autoexpress.co.uk/lotus...ath-british-built-sports-car-will-live-hybrid

 

[OppositeLock]

This is an example of market chaos due to mandates changing very quickly. The EV mandate is impractical, the technology isn't quite there yet. There are many nice EV's, but they can't fit every duty cycle since the energy density of batteries is so much lower than of gasoline. Reality is hitting now, after years of irrational optimism, so all these mandates are softening.

I know that in the EU, the ICE bans were explicit, but they've been reversed since they were killing the German auto industry. In the US, they were implicit at the federal level, by mandating fleet-wide fuel efficiency requirements that could only be achieved by a mostly electric fleet, while some states, like CA and a few other who follow CA, outright banned ICE cars past 2035. I live in CA, where this is slowly being phased in, and large truck fleet operators have to buy EV trucks now. There aren't many good ones, so they use them to haul stuff to the border with Nevada or Oregon or Arizona, and swap tractors to a diesel one there.

The world's not done changing. I hope Lotus finds a way to survive. Their cars are such a nice balance of price/performance.

My big worry now (since I have some insight into car safety regulations via my job) is that future Lotus cars will be burdened with undefeatable driver assist tech, all of which is garbage. It's a compliance technology that's not ready for production, but it's being forced now. The EU is very concerned about speeding and pedestrians, while the US is very concerned about drivers not paying attention or being impaired, and they're forcing car companies to cripple all cars to prevent a few bad drivers from doing something stupid.

 

[LotsOfTriumphsUsuallySexy]

> future Lotus cars will be burdened with undefeatable driver assist tech, all of which is garbage

If it's anything like what was in my Skoda rental this summer (beyond useless and absolutely infuriating), then I violently agree and will be ecstatic I got an Emira before that arrived. I honestly believe it will have a material impact on the resale value.

 

[freefall_junkie]

> future Lotus cars will be burdened with undefeatable driver assist tech, all of which is garbage

If it's anything like what was in my Skoda rental this summer (beyond useless and absolutely infuriating), then I violently agree and will be ecstatic I got an Emira before that arrived. I honestly believe it will have a material impact on the resale value.

Couldn't agree more. I had an Audi Q3 rental car recently. Utterly hateful thing with endless bongs from the speed warning, the lane assist tugging at the steering wheel, and the blind spot light blinking on the wing mirror. The emergency brake assist was downright dangerous, jamming the brakes on for no good reason in town. No obvious way to turn this stuff off without further distraction deep in the touchscreen menus. I wouldn’t buy any car with ADAS unless, like my BMW G21, all of it can be permanently disabled.

 

[OppositeLock]

I recently rented a Corolla, and it was insufferable. In stop and go traffic, it beeped at me to brake each time traffic stopped, and booped each time it started moving. It watched my face, and if I ever looked away from straight ahead for a couple of seconds, it'd beep and tell me to pay attention - even when looking over my shoulder to merge, or to my passenger to chat for a moment, or even in the side mirror. What's even worse is that the damn thing had weight sensors in all the seats, and went absolutely crazy if there was weight in an unbuckled seat. I had to buckle my suitcase, then the seat sensor broke, so I just had to leave the belt fastened - which exposed a new problem. When I tried to lock that car, it yelled at me that I'm leaving a baby in the back seat.

Modern cars are evil, demonic things that make driving a miserable experience. All this garbage is mandated be people who optimize spreadsheets for a living.