2010 Lotus Elise and Exige: Cleaner and More Fuel Efficient

You'd think that, since the Elise and Exige models are pure-bred sportscars, Lotus wouldn't care much about improving their eco-credentials. Well, apparently that's not the case with Lotus as the British automaker has performed various tweaks on both cars' powertrains and aerodynamics helping the 2010MY Elise and Exige give up to a 9% reduction in CO2 emissions and similar increases in fuel economy.

According to Lotus' Spartan press release, on the combined cycle, the Elise S shows the greatest improvement in fuel efficiency offering an increase of 3.2mpg UK or 2.7mpg US (a decrease of 0.7 l/100km), from 34.0 mpg UK or 28.3 mpg US (8.3 l/100 km) to 37.mpg UK or 31mpg US (7.6 l/100km)

Mike Kimberley, CEO of Group Lotus plc, stated, "The Lotus philosophy of performance through light weight is even more relevant in today's emission focused ecological world. This design philosophy has enabled Lotus to offer fantastic levels of performance, with Lotus cars being some of the greenest performance cars on the market".

The new 2010 model year Elise and Exige are on sale now at Lotus dealers in the UK.

Elise S:179 g/km CO2

• 7.6 l/100 km (37.2 mpg UK) Combined Cycle
  
• 10.6 l/100 km (26.6 mpg UK) Urban Cycle
  
• 5.8 l/100 km (48.7 mpg UK) Extra Urban Cycle
  

Elise R: 196 g/km CO2

• 8.2 l/100 km (34.4 mpg UK) Combined Cycle
  
• 11.6 l/100 km (24.4 mpg UK) Urban Cycle
  
• 6.2 l/100 km (45.6 mpg UK) Extra Urban Cycle
  

Elise SC: 199 g/km CO2

• 8.5 l/100 km (33.2 mpg UK) Combined Cycle
  
• 11.8 l/100 km (23.9 mpg UK) Urban Cycle
  
• 6.4 l/100 km (44.1 mpg UK) Extra Urban Cycle
  

Exige S: 199 g/km CO2

• 8.5 l/100 km (33.2 mpg UK) Combined Cycle
  
• 11.9 l/100 km (23.7 mpg UK) Urban Cycle
  
• 6.5 litres/100 km (43.5 mpg UK) Extra Urban Cycle

New Ford Fiesta European Sales Approach 170,000 Units

In what could be seen by some as a direct answer to Kia's announcement that it has sold more than 5,000 Soul vehicles in Europe from the beginning of the year, Ford came out today and revealed that its European arm has pushed out nearly 170,000 units since the car was introduced last autumn, with 108,000 of those sold this year. Ford said that in March alone, the company sold 52,800 Fiestas making it the highest retail sales month ever for the new subcompact hatch that is due to be launched in the U.S. in 2010.

But all is not well as the economic crisis has hurt Ford's sales overall. In the first quarter of 2009, Ford of Europe sold across its Euro 19 markets 352,200 vehicles, down 69,200 or 16.4 percentage points versus 2008. On the bright side, the company's European market share rose half a percentage point to 9.4 percent which is the highest Q1 share the company has ever had since 1998.