Lotus has been through its fair share of turbulence in its 76-year history, be it the death of Colin Chapman in 1982 or the Bahar blunder-era in the late '00s. And the depth of its current owner's pockets notwithstanding, it appears braced for increasingly choppy waters again. Despite shifting 6,970 cars in 2023 and setting a sales record in the process, it announced cuts to its workforce back in January and losses totalling $750m (or £592m) three months later. Just a week ago, it announced a further 200 job cuts in the wake of a wider EV market slowdown. Lotus says the restructuring is aimed at “fulfilling our order book”, which suggests the book isn’t getting bigger at the rate it would hope.
Of course, there is never just one reason for faltering demand (and certainly Lotus isn't alone in the battery-powered boat), but those of us not in the boardroom can probably all agree that lumping most of its eggs into the Chinese-made luxury EV basket hasn't done it too many favours. Not when the US has brought 100 per cent import tariffs to bear on Chinese-built electric cars, and the EU is expected to follow suit with its own levies. Needless to say, those are two substantial markets for the Eletre and Emeya, and it’s not as though they were cheap to begin with. Is there an easy solution? Probably not. But if we were in the boardroom (a frightening prospect, to be sure) we'd probably be the lone voice pitching a new, lightweight, cheap-to-make sports car. You know, like the cars Lotus made for over seven decades. Like the Series 1 Exige you see here.
Okay, so bringing back the Elise and Exige wouldn’t suddenly make Lotus the multi-million-pound motoring giant Geely would like it to be (probably the opposite, in fact). But it didn't appear to do the firm any harm when the Series 1 Exige arrived in 2000, with the Elise racking up nearly 7,000 sales since its reveal four years prior. Yes, those are the sort of numbers today’s Lotus tallies in a year, but production costs must've been infinitesimal compared to what they are now, as the Exige proved. Though different in name, it wasn’t far removed from its sibling, with a fixed roof, front air dam and a massive rear wing.
Underneath, of course, there was a bit more to it than that. The 1.8-litre K-Series motor was rated at 179hp in standard form, though a later factory upgrade (which this car has fitted) bumped that up to 193hp, paired with a close-ratio five-speed manual gearbox. Meanwhile, the track width grew for even more mechanical grip (hence why the Exige’s shoulders are so much broader than the Elise’s) while the suspension was firmed up and adjustable anti-roll bars fitted. It was otherwise identical to the Elise, but as is so often the case with Lotus, a few tweaks tend to have a transformative effect - as was the case here, if the glowing reviews in period are anything to go off.
Lotus only made 604 examples, a decent amount given it was only on sale for a year, and while you’ll find many of those have been heavily modified and/or thrashed on track, this one is as original as it gets. Partly because it’s barely been driven. After taking delivery of their S1 Exige in February 2000, the original owner clocked a few thousand miles during their four years of ownership, upgrading the engine and exhaust in the process, before selling it on in January 2004. Its new owner then put the car into dry storage, where it remained for 20 years (!), occasionally coming out for services, MOTs and the very occasional spirited drive.
Right now it’s sitting at 8,000 miles, though it’s recently had four new Yokohama tyres and a full service carried out for the next owner, who will hopefully double the mileage within the first month of it in their possession. You’ll want to get your money’s worth, because it’s for sale at £75,000. Which is the sort of money that buys you a brand-new Emira. You could even pick up one of the original Motorsport Elise prototypes and the very car to appear at the 1999 Geneva Motor Show for a £5k discount on this. Or how about this Series 1 Exige with a supercharged Honda k20 engine for half the price? Either way, you'll own a lovely example of what Lotus used to do better than anyone else. Let's hope for the sake of both its staff and its customers, the company finds its way back to that sort of self-confidence.
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