Patchouli Power! Lotus Goes Green with Eco Elise

As a devout environmentalist, cars have always been something of an Achilles heel for me. I have a love affair with cars that I have tried to manage in many ways, but there is something in me, whether it is social or inherited, that just gives me so much pleasure when I go flying down Highway 1 at 50+ mph on a gorgeous afternoon with the wind screaming through my hair – I love it!

To that end, I have always found it hard to get excited about the new super high mpg vehicles. I do not mean to offend (really, I don’t, if I had to buy a new car now it would probably be one of these) but I just can’t get myself that excited about the Prius or the Honda civic hybrid or any of the other cars in this class. The mileage is great, but come on people, could you possibly design a less sexy car? While I understand the environmental and practical aspect of cars like the Prius, can anyone really imagine a child dreaming of owning one, drawing pictures of it, putting up posters of it on the wall? (not like I did these thing with other cars…) No, of course not. A Prius is practical, like the minivans soccer moms used to drive before SUV’s took over. They aren’t status symbols, they aren’t sexy, and they certainly don’t deliver the kind of driving experience I look for in a car. That doesn’t mean they aren’t great, groundbreaking and all of these other things – they just weren’t built for people like me.

Fortunately, automakers are starting to design more fuel efficient cars I can really look forward to owning in 15 years when I am a millionaire. The new all electric Tesla for instance certainly fits the bill, but I may have to be a multimillionaire before I can afford that one.

Enter the Lotus. Lotus was founded on the theory that cars didn’t need bigger engines, they needed to be smaller and more lightweight. This is the reason that the Lotus has always had good gas mileage, and not even just for a sports car. Last years Lotus Elise got 34 mpg – that is not only better than cars like the Porsche which get around 12 mpg, but is even comparable to most standard small cars, including the non-hybrid Civic.

Now Lotus has gone one step further with the Eco-Elise. They made the car even lighter to increase fuel efficiency, and are making as much of it as possible form sustainable materials (the interior will be hemp the paint is all low VOC) and it will even have solar panels on the roof that will run all of the electrical parts of the car like the AC and stereo. Looks like I finally have a new poster to hang on my wall!