Monday, March 9, 2009

The green technology

Thinking 'green' is part of our culture

We are not alone in recognising that the automotive industry must do more to address its environmental impact, through reducing CO2 emissions and improving the recyclability of the materials it uses.

And we believe that the best way we can help our clients to achieve this is through developing vehicles that also excite and inspire consumers. It is a philosophy we have adhered to for years with our own cars that through a combination of light weight and efficient engines are a sheer pleasure to drive.

Our track record in developing and producing clean and efficient engines, biofuel vehicles, hybrids and electric vehicles is already impressive and extensive. In fact, as we head into a new automotive era, the technology of CO2 reduction will become central to our engineering business.

The technologies for efficient vehicles

We have a strong focus on all of the technologies that can play a part in cleaner vehicles and transport. These include the propulsion and powertrain technologies, weight reduction throughout the vehicle, approaches for greener manufacturing of greener vehicles and recyclability. Our own research and engineering is looking at many of these areas. Many technologies will have a role to play over the coming decades - there will be no one green powertrain technology that will dominate all market for many years.

Vehicles such as our Exige265E Bio-Fuel, our EVE (efficient, Viable, Environment) Hybrid and the lightweight aluminium Versatile Vehicle Architecture (VVA) are just a few examples of the some of green engineering and technology area we are looking at.

The green technology integrators

So while we research a variety of technologies, our green automotive expertise goes way beyond this. Lotus is leading the world in the integration of green technology into vehicles. We have the expertise and experience to help clients integrate their technologies into new vehicles.

Our work for Tesla Motors on their Tesla Roadster is just one example. We are assembling the Tesla Roadster under contract to Tesla Motors and were also hired for certain design and engineering tasks. The Tesla Roadster style was developed in Lotus Engineering's design studio - we won a design contest where several design firms submitted proposals and Lotus Engineering has supplied the initial chassis, which was significantly modified by Tesla Motors engineers.

Over the next few years there will be many further examples of how Lotus Engineering has helped clients introduce more green vehicles. The automotive world is ever adapting to achieve a greener future. It is clear Lotus that has a key part to play and it is a role we are glad to take on.

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