Famed sportscar manufacturer Lotus has officially announced that it has started work on a new SUV. The SUV from Lotus was a rumour for a while now and has been confirmed for a 2022 launch. The new Lotus SUV will be based on Volvo underpinnings, most likely the SPA - Scalable Platform Architecture on which the likes of the recently launched XC60 and the upcoming S60 are based. The new Lotus SUV will as expected have great handling and the automaker has openly announced that it would like to take on the Porsche Cayenne, which has so far been the gold standard for all-round performance SUVs globally.
Lotus has decided to base its new SUV on a Volvo platform since the same Chinese auto conglomerate, Geely, now owns both Volvo and Lotus. Lotus has also confirmed that the SUV will have typically Lotus design in terms of its exterior with front and rear styling heavily inspired by the likes of the Elise and the Exige. In parallel, Lotus will also be developing a new Elise and Exige, which will also receive an all new aluminium platform for weight reduction.
Incidentally, this isn't the first time Lotus has worked on an SUV platform. Apart from being an automaker in their own right, Lotus is also in the forefront of tuning suspension for other automakers the world over - depending of course on their needs and markets. Lotus has tuned suspension and has set up chassis for the likes of Mahindra in the past, in particular for the Mahindra Armada and the Bolero. Lotus also had a hand in developing suspension components for the original Mahindra Scorpio, which since then has been improved by Mahindra substantially.
Image Source: PCauto.com.cn
