The Ethos concept would surely be a best-seller, writes NEIL DOWLING in Norfolk, England. August, 2011
 
THE slowest Lotus could prove by far its quickest off the showroom floor as the British sportscar maker prepares to launch its city car.

Following the lead of Aston Martin’s Cygnet, Lotus has designed a concept three-door hatch that is less than 3.5m long and will have an innovative electric drivetrain.
Lotus says the car, called the Ethos, could be ready for sale as early as 2013. It was the sixth car shown by Lotus at March’s Geneva auto show but, despite its sales potential, was overlooked by a public dazzled with the company’s sportscar line-up.
The Malaysian-owned English-based niche car maker could call on its parent Proton to build the city car.
It would possibly be powered by a small petrol engine for Malaysia and other markets or a Lotus-developed three-cylinder petrol generator and electric motor hybrid system for emission-sensitive markets.
Lotus Cars group PR manager Alastair Florance says it’s still a concept, though the car features significantly at the company’s head office in Norfolk, UK.
“But this is not the car shown at the show with a Proton badge — that is a completely separate car,” he says.
“The Ethos can make it to production in about 2013, but we haven’t made the final call on that.
“It is shown as a concept with a hybrid powertrain using the new Lotus-designed system of a range-extender petrol engine and an electric motor. It could have a small petrol or diesel engine instead of the hybrid.”
The Lotus 1.2-litre three-cylinder petrol engine — made by Fagor in Spain — is specifically designed to act as a generator to charge the lithium-ion battery pack. It does not drive the wheels and so can be located anywhere in the car and in any orientation.
“The range extender is for applications where the car is driven for long periods,” Florance says. “Perhaps we would have an electric-only system, with a plug-in charger, for city purposes where it doesn’t need the extra weight and complexity and expense of the petrol engine.”
The Ethos concept has a range of 60km as a full electric car, but up to 500km with the range-extender system. The engine is designed to run on fuels including ethanol and methanol.
In electric mode, it is claimed to be as quick as most other traffic, accelerating to 100km/h from rest in 9.0 seconds, on to a top speed of 170km/h.
With the range extender, its 54kW/240Nm generator will charge the batteries to provide sufficient energy for the car to cruise at 120km/h.