Lotus boss Mike Kimberley has recently announced that the coming replacement for the ageing Lotus Esprit flagship will be delayed until early 2011. The complete redesign was pushed down the priorities list while the company focused all its energies on the Lotus Evora release, which will provide the basis for the Esprit chassis and suspension setup.

Kimberley has gone on to explain that he wants the Esprit to offer “guilt-free, high performance motoring”, noting that Lotus is “working on something”. I suspect this implies we may see a Hybrid option, especially when we remember that Lotus and Toyota are already sharing engine technology.

More time to get things right isn’t such a bad idea as attempts to revive the Esprit have been met with harsh criticism from Kimberley in previous years. When the company boss has managed to ‘lose it’ 3 times, and destroy 4 clutches in the process, you know you’ve got some serious work to do - unless of course he just can’t drive.