Lotus unveils electric city car

Tweet this post From Auto Blog Green: In spectacular fashion, Lotus unveiled six vehicles at the Paris Motor Show. The reveals included the Elite, Espirit, Elise, Eterne hybrid, Elan and one that escaped our cameras: the City Car concept.

According to CAR Magazine, Lotus has approved the range-extended City Car and will wheel out a production version near the end of 2013. The automaker will apparently produce three distinct City Car models; one for the Asian market, one for Europe and, at some later point, a sportier version.

The City Car concept is not your typical urban runabout. It employs a plug-in hybrid powertrain packed with a 1.2-liter three-cylinder range extender engine. Lotus claims an electric-only range of 37 miles before that gas-powered range extender swings into action delivering at least 165 miles more. The automaker states that the vehicle's CO2 emissions are under 60 grams per kilometer wile 0-60 miles per hour comes in at less than ten seconds.

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