Fans of Lotus supercars should run to the nearest dealership and place their orders, because it looks like that will soon be impossible. Like the Lotus Elise and Exige, the Lotus Evora could soon be banned from U.S. dealerships because it fails to meet smart airbag guidelines.
With street legal Lotus offerings diminishing due to new rules and guidelines, the brand could become quite obscure Stateside over the next decade.
It seems like the logical thing to do would be to simply meet the smart airbag guidelines, even doing a sort-of recall to install them on past sales. But the more likely reality will be that the cars are removed from the showrooms because of the costs involved with meeting the standards. The company recently announced plans to downsize a quarter of its global workforce, indicating possible financial woes.