The V8 Lotus Is Coming Back, and It Has Ferrari in Its Sights

Twenty-two years is a long time to wait. The last Lotus powered by a V8 engine rolled off the production line in 2004, when the original Esprit quietly ended its run. Now, in 2026, Lotus CEO Feng Qingfeng has confirmed that a new V8 hybrid supercar is in development, and the name everyone wants attached to it may finally be coming back.

The Name Nobody Can Confirm (But Everyone Expects)

Lotus has not officially confirmed the nameplate. But when Automotive News pressed CEO Feng Qingfeng on whether the upcoming supercar would be called the Esprit, his response was telling. "Let's just say there's a logical legacy connection," he said. "It's something people have asked us to bring back ever since. It's still in the hearts and minds of many of our customers."

That is about as close to a confirmation as a CEO will give before a formal reveal. Adding fuel to the fire, Lotus accidentally revealed the Esprit name in an internal document earlier in May 2026. The car is currently known internally as the Type 135. It will sit above the Emira in the lineup, is expected to feature a McLaren F1-inspired three-seat configuration first seen on the Theory 1 Concept, and will be built at Lotus's historic Hethel facility in England, not in China.

The Engine: Horse Powertrain and What 1,000 hp Actually Means

Here is where the story gets serious. The Type 135 will be powered by a brand-new V8 developed by Horse Powertrain, the joint venture between Geely and Renault. This marks a deliberate departure from Lotus's current reliance on outsourced engines. The Emira today uses a Mercedes-AMG four-cylinder and a Toyota V6. The new supercar will use neither.

Feng Qingfeng was direct about the engineering priority: "Since we will be starting from scratch, we will make a lot of effort to improve the volume and weight of the engine." For Lotus, a brand whose entire identity is built on lightweight performance, that is exactly the right thing to say.

The V8 hybrid setup is expected to produce more than 1,000 hp. The benchmark Lotus has set for itself is the Ferrari 849 Testarossa, the car that succeeded the SF90 Stradale and delivers 1,036 hp from its own twin-turbo V8 plug-in hybrid powertrain. Targeting Ferrari directly is not a modest ambition. It is, however, a statement of intent that few brands have the credibility to make. Lotus has that credibility. The Type 135 is expected to arrive in 2028.

Focus 2030 and Lotus's Honest U-Turn

The deeper story here is how dramatically Lotus has changed course. In 2021, the brand declared it would be fully electric by 2030, with the Emira being its last ever petrol car. That plan has been abandoned. In 2025, Lotus produced just 6,520 vehicles, nowhere near the 150,000-unit target set under its Vision 18 strategy. EV demand fell short of expectations, and the market spoke clearly.

Feng Qingfeng did not try to spin it. "We did act too fast," he admitted. "That is why we made a change and decided to go hybrid." The new Focus 2030 roadmap targets a lineup of 60% plug-in hybrids and 40% battery-electric vehicles. The Emira itself will receive a new V6 hybrid from Horse, dropping the Mercedes-AMG four-cylinder entirely, because, as Qingfeng put it, "people prefer the V6."

The new V8 will also power other vehicles within the Geely portfolio, including off-road SUVs. But Lotus will be the only brand to deploy it in a sports car. That exclusivity matters, and it is exactly the kind of detail that separates a genuinely special machine from a shared-platform product.