Lotus blew away a large portion of the motoring journalism world at the Paris Motorshow this year, unveiling 5 brand new models and shifting the direction of the small scale manufacturer into a Ferrari, Lamborghini, Aston Martin, McLaren hunter.

The new hybrid Elan is due in 2013 and will feature a 4 litre V6 supplied by Toyota and tweaked by the boffins at Lotus to churn out 450hp, it’s connected to a 7 speed transmission and does the 0-62 run in 3.5 seconds with a top speed of 193mph. It is widely expected that that Evora will be replaced by this new model when it is released.

Lotus will be dabbling in KERS for the first time with the Elan, a technology used in Formula 1 in the 2009 season and due to be reintroduced in 2011. It’s essentially a flywheel that stores energy otherwise lost under braking by spinning at up to 50,000rpm on low resistance bearings. When the driver needs the power boost they hit the KERS button and off they go.

Estimated pricing for the 2+2 Elan is $118,000 USD and it’ll be available worldwide in 2013.

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