V8-Powered Lotus Emira Under Consideration, Says Company

We’ve been hearing about engine downsizing for years now, as car companies look to cut emissions and meet ever-stricter regulations. It’s not very often these days that things go the other way and a car gains a larger engine than before, but the Lotus Emira could be set to buck that trend.

According to Autocar, Group Lotus CEO Feng Qingfeng said ““We are currently investigating the feasibility of the V8” as a replacement for the Emira’s range-topping 3.5-litre supercharged V6, as the current Toyota-sourced engine will fall foul of the Euro7 emissions standards that are set to come into force across Europe next year at the earliest.

The report goes on to cite new European Lotus boss Matt Windle mentioning “opportunities with the current supplier of engines” for sourcing a new powerplant. The Emira currently uses engines from two different manufacturers – the Toyota V6 and Mercedes-AMG’s 2.0-litre turbocharged four-cylinder.

Toyota currently builds a V8 in the form of the 5.0-litre naturally aspirated 2UR, seen in cars like the Lexus RC-F and LC500. This seems an unlikely source of power for the Emira, though, as this engine itself has disappeared from the European market thanks to emissions rules.

A far more likely candidate would be AMG’s 4.0-litre twin-turbo unit. Not only is this engine fully compliant with all the latest European emissions rules, Lotus has closer ties to Mercedes via the German manufacturer’s partnership with Lotus’ parent company, Chinese carmaker Geely.

In addition to keeping a flagship, larger-engined Emira feasible in the longer run, the fitment of a V8 would provide some much needed headroom between the two different versions of the Emira.

Since the four-cylinder a round of upgrades, getting renamed Turbo SE in the process, it’s produced a V6-equalling 400bhp. Thanks to its lighter weight and faster-shifting dual-clutch gearbox, the smaller-engined Emira is now the quicker of the two, an imbalance the fitment of a more powerful V8 would likely shift.

We’ll likely be waiting a little while before we see if anything comes of this, but we could well be a step closer to the first eight-pot Lotus since the Esprit died over 20 years ago.