Carscoop: Italdesign

It appears that Aston Martin won't be the only British sports car maker to have a controversial small city car in its range. Lotus chief executive Dany Bahar told Car magazine that the Concept City Car, which was previewed at the recent Paris Motor Show alongside five sports car studies, has been approved for production. The comapny's CEO said the car will be manufactured in cooperation with Lotus parent company Proton and an undisclosed third party.

"Our city car has been confirmed and will be launched in October 2013," Mr. Bahar told the British magazine. "We are doing this together with Proton and another OEM [original equipment manufacturer, or car maker]. We will build three versions: one for the Asian market, one for Europe and a sportier one."

The Lotus flavored Concept City Car is based on one of the three Giugiaro-penned Proton EMAS design studies, which were first shown in Geneva earlier this year.

Built on a platform that was designed in-house by Italdesign Giugiaro, the EV concept model features a 45 kW (75kW peak power) electric motor that can be recharged by a 1.2 liter 3-cylinder engine. The hybrid plug-in drive system was developed entirely by Lotus. Unlike the front-wheel drive iQ-Cygnet, British supermini gets a rear-wheel drive setup.

With a total vehicle weight of less than 1400 kg [3,086 lbs] and 240 Nm [177 lb-ft] of torque instantly available, the City Car concept is said to complete the 0 - 50 km/h sprint in 4.5 seconds and the 0 - 100 km/h [62 mph] in 9 seconds, when operating as an EV under battery power. The top speed is pegged at 170 km/h, [105mph] with a charge sustaining top speed of 120 km/h [63 mph].

The pure electric drive range is 50 km or 31 miles, but can be extended to a total of 500 km or 311 miles when the petrol engine kicks. Lotus claims that the drivetrain returns CO2 emissions of 60 g/km.

Mr. Bahar did not say if the production model will keep the concept's extended-range hybrid drivetrain or if Lotus will offer the car with a traditional petrol engine as well.

Source: Car magazine

Lotus City Car Concept Specifications

Layout: 3-door, 4-seater, rear-wheel drive
Drivetrain Series hybrid drivetrain
Range extender engine 35 kW, 1.2-litre, 3-cylinder engine
Engine fuel Flex-fuel (methanol, ethanol and petrol)
Battery Capacity 14.8 kWh
Power/Torque 162 kW peak (54 kW continuous)/240 Nm, 0-50 km/h 4.5 seconds, 0-100 km/h 9.0 seconds
Top speed 170km/h
Range 500 km
EV range 60km
CO2 emissions 60g/km on the ECE-R101 cycle
Weight Less than 1400 kg
Transmission Single-speed transmission

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Europe's largest carmaker, the Volkswagen Group, completed the acquisition of Italdesign Giugiaro S.p.A. (IDG) on Monday and now holds a 90.1 percent stake in the Italian design and engineering firm as well as the company's brand name rights and patents. The German automaker said the shareholding has been purchased by Audi's Italian subsidiary Lamborghini with the remaining stake held by present owner family Giugiaro.

"Italdesign has now become a permanent member of the Volkswagen Group. Given the full order books and numerous interesting projects, the perspectives are better than ever," said Martin Winterkorn, VW's chief executive. "In view of our ongoing model initiative and the associated development and design assignments, we will be expanding Italdesign's highly-motivated and productive team," Winterkorn added.

The German firm appointed Gerhard Willner (49), who currently heads concept development at the Volkswagen Passenger Cars brand in Wolfsburg, and Salvatore Cieri (53), current member of the Board of Directors responsible for Administration, Finance and Controlling at Lamborghini, to the Executive Committee of the Board of Directors of IDG that will continue to be led by Giorgetto Giugiaro.

The Italian design consultancy was established in 1968 by Giorgetto Giugiaro and Aldo Mantovani and has created a great number of vehicles for the VW Group over the years including the first generation of the Golf and many concept models such as the first Volkswagen Passat, Scirocco and the Audi 80.

Italdesign was also responsible the design of many Fiat Group vehicles including the Fiat Punto and Grande Punto, and the Alfa Romeo 156 /159 and Brera.