Lotus Elise cuts $17k off price

The British-built sports cars are famous for their giant-killing reputation, supercar performance for a fraction of the price, and new importer Ateco is working both fronts.

The company's first step has been to leverage the Aussie dollar's strength against the pound to make effective price cuts of up to 20 per cent. The base model Lotus is now $2000 cheaper at $67,990 while the supercharged SC is now just $77,990, a saving of $17,000.

The performance has also been tweaked with all Elise vehicles now loaded with the previously optional sports pack valued at $6000. It consists of twin oil coolers, Bilstein dampers; Y spoke forged alloy wheels and ProBax sports seats.

It's all good news for new owners but not much consolation to the 10 Elise buyers this year who paid up to $94,990 for the privilege of putting a Lotus in their garage.

Lotus Australia general manager Glen Sealey sympathised but noted pricing had been set by the previous importer.

"We officially became the Lotus importer this month and we've overhauled the entire structure," he said. "The first-year plan is to double sales to 100 vehicles . getting volume on to the streets helps establish a presence. We're looking at the Lotus brand equity to see just where it fits into the market. The Lotus name has global appeal, it is a case of working out where to position the models."

Sealey wouldn't comment on the previous pricing of the Lotus models in Australia but said Ateco's business case was based on increasing volume and realigning prices to Lotus's natural competitors.

"We'll re-launch and re-price the Evora," he said. "The other two name plates (Elise and Exige) are established and in some ways look after themselves but the Evora is where we see the potential for big volume growth. First we had to determine where it sits against the likes of Porsche and we've now adjusted the model mix to have the Evora S and (automatic transmission) IPS.