No longer in the target group
04/04/2026
Lotus is at the Milan Design Week. I found this press release in the editorial mailbox this week:
Since 1948, Lotus has stood for lightweight construction, engineering and emotional design. This development is based on three principles:
Digital - intelligent, immersive experiences
Natural - people, emotion and connection
Analogue - progress in performance technology
Together they shape the brand's unmistakable design language.
The exhibition shows how Lotus reduces, rethinks and redesigns: from aerodynamic shapes and ergonomic concepts to intuitive driver interfaces. This is complemented by an artist residency with James Martin, who interprets progress as a personal and creative journey.
The vehicle can already be seen in the Larusmiani store in Milan from April 2 to 16.
Well, I'm ... a bit overwhelmed. Or simply from yesterday. Because the brand in Hethel that I can remember was a factory in a rather rural area that built cars for pertrolheads, uncompromising, honest and no frills. Certainly, this type of buyer was not very numerous. Around 10 years ago, Lotus sold around 1800 to 2000 cars a year. Nevertheless, the manufacturer is said to have made a profit in 2018 with hardcore sports cars such as the Elise, the Exige and the Evora.
Press trip to the North Norfolk coast in the Exige - there was a short briefing, then off we go!
I remember press meetings taking place in the passageway between the briefing room and Lotus Head of Design Russell Carr's small design department. The chauffeur who picked you up at London Heathrow was the same one who drove the CEO, Jean-Marc Gales, from London up to Norfolk after his weekend at home in Luxembourg. There was always the latest gossip to be heard, such as Jean-Marc having to surrender his driver's license because he had been caught speeding in a Lotus. Once we arrived, we were once again provided with important information.
"What, you again!" Lotus CEO Jean-Marc Gales once said at a press event in 2017 - quite a feat, he had invited me for the fourth time in a year...
Back then, around 2017, Lotus managed to provide you with the important information without much fanfare. You were flown in, the chauffeur took you to the north, the cars were parked right outside the door of the small administrative wing with a slightly faded decor of various Lotus F-1 racing cars on the wall, an oversized sticker. The route to the southern outskirts of Norwich was always the same, the signposts - quasi permanently installed - actually superfluous. Sometimes I was accompanied by Alastair Florance, known as "Flo". I don't know whether he was a geologist or just interested in it, but he explained the molasse layers of Norfolk to me - at around 70 miles per hour as I plodded down a B-road. Or we'd stop off in Mulbarton and punt together across the Common - the common land - of the Lotus factory's neighboring town of Hethel. This somehow helped us to understand the rather herbaceous guys around Norwich a little better - good-hearted people. Or we went for fish and chips, you couldn't go wrong anyway.
Perfect after a wild ride on narrow B-roads around Norwich
After the road course, we usually went to the race track, the old control tower was still there, where we were given a helmet, a short briefing and then we went out onto the track. There was no pace car, no extra chicane - and nobody else! The whole track to yourself - wonderful! Or Flo thought we should treat ourselves to a lap in Colin's last Esprit, if we had to...
Colin Chapman's last own car, an Esprit Turbo, was ready for a test drive at the presentation of the Emira, the old control tower had already been demolished and replaced by a container (the "Clubhouse").
I always put my shoes on the grass by the tower, they were always too rough for the delicate pedals of the Lotus. Back at the administration building, Jean-Marc was usually standing there again and wanted to experience the impressions for himself. There was more background knowledge, such as the fact that he had the seat rails optimized after the seats wobbled in the first Lotus he sat in as the new CEO. In his spare time, an employee had improved the unspeakable gearshift lever guide of earlier models to such an extent that in the latest Elise and Exige - a see-through-skeleton construction - it is one of the best cable-based gearshift guides available.
Finished Exige, Evora and Elise in the final inspection, the photo was taken with a cell phone.
And taking photos in production? A ban was never an issue: "Don't stand in the way, ask the workers who are in the picture and that's it!" Everything easy, everything simple. Add lightness and simplify...
But Milan, an Italian menswear store, vermouth instead of beer (even better: ale! And fish & chips), elegant people in elegant rooms and palazzi? This instead of blue men, polo shirts that have become a little too small and a workshop where people work? And a racetrack where people step on the gas? No, I'm probably no longer part of the target group... Sorry guys, I'm out!
