2020 Lotus Elise sports car made of extruded aluminium chassis floats

Lotus, the British carmaker has braced its iconic, entry-level Elise model for 2020. The lightweight sports model is now available in two models, the Sport 220 and Hardcore Cup 250.

The 2020 Elise is chassis is manufactured by extruded aluminium, reducing the weight scales at less than one tonne. The empty weight of the Sport 220 comes in at 924 kg, while the cup 250 is just marginally heavier with 931 kg weight.

The price remains the same for the 2020 models. The Sport 220 model is kept $87,990 and Cup 250 is $107,990.

The two variants make use of the same mid-mounted, 1.8-litre supercharged four-cylinder engine with dual variable valve timing. The output is rated at 162kW at 6800rpm and 250Nm at 4600rpm for the Sport 220.

The additional tuning of the engine, the Cup 250’s output can increase to 181kW at 7200rpm and 250Nm from 3500-5500rpm, giving it a wider torque band.

The Sport 220 and Cup 250 send power through a six-speed close-ratio manual transmission to the rear wheels.

The engines’ efficiency and the lightweight chassis, Lotus claims the Sport 220 will have a combined fuel consumption of only 7.7L/100km with the Cup 250 not far behind at 7.8L/100km.