Is it safe to be cautiously optimistic about Lotus yet? There has been some really positive news out of Hethel recently, from the excellent

Elise S Cup

to the much needed Evora facelift and automatic 'box for

the Exige

. Today Lotus has confirmed its best 12 months for sales in six years with numbers up in every market.

Elise sales up 80 per cent globally to 729 cars

Of course we're not talking huge volumes - 1,296 cars to 2,015 - but 55 per cent is still a notable rise. The biggest gains were in China (186 per cent increase), France (177 per cent) and Germany (130 per cent). Japan remains Lotus's largest export market and sales there more than doubled from 180 units in 2013/14 to 365 this year. America experienced the smallest jump in sales (24 per cent), but then the solitary Lotus road car sold in the States is the Evora. The only Elises and Exiges available there are the track variants. Bring on the Evora Roadster...

In the UK, 346 cars sold represents a 102 per cent rise over 2013/14. With the Elise's 20th anniversary, the Evora 400 and a 2-Eleven replacement imminent Lotus will hope to build on its domestic success into 2015/16.