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Lotus announced plans to offer a new Esprit nearly four years ago but the model has been in limbo ever since the company abandoned their aggressive product strategy spearheaded by Dany Bahar.

While the model was almost complete, Lotus CEO Jean-Marc Gales dismissed the possibility of seeing a production version. As he explained to Auto Express, "... the answer is no. I don’t want to focus on the past, but there are some technologies and supplier relationships that we can take forward from the [Bahar] projects."

Gales also downplayed the possibility of Lotus-built engines - such as the V8 featured in Esprit - by saying "We cannot and should not develop our own engine – most small car makes that have gone that route have disappeared." Instead, the company will continue buying engines from Toyota because they are "reliable, good and we can trust them."

The executive also said their short-term lineup will be based on the Elise, Exige and Evora. He declined to go into specifics but said we can expect a number of improvements including better performance and improved ride and handling characteristics. Gales went on to say a crossover could be introduced in three to four years and could eventually be followed by a sedan.