[Uploaded on November 28, 2006 by Fleur-Design]

Lotus Cars has won two green projects from the UK Government Technology Strategy Board.

These two project consortia will be allocated part of a total £23 million for 16 innovative low carbon vehicle development programmes. Including investments from companies such as Lotus, these projects collectively represent a total value of £52 million.

The first project is the development of a zero emission vehicle (ZEV) for the London Taxi Fleet. Called the Zero Emission London Taxi Commericalizaton Project, it aims to have the London fleet replaced by 2012 and other cities by 2014. It calls for the modernization of whole fleet while retaining the distinctive character of the vehicle popular with tourists alike.

The second project is called the Limo-Green project. The objective is to take a standard Jaquar luxury vehicle and create zero emission transportation for the banking and finance set in downtown London.

Mike Kimberley, Chief Executive Officer of Group Lotus Plc said: “We are committed to driving forward with high technology advances into areas such as hybrid and electric vehicles, and we are delighted to be major contributors to two of the low carbon vehicle development projects. There is a world-wide drive to reduce CO2 emission levels and this is something to which we are dedicated, for both our Lotus cars and our global engineering clients.

Lotus has been at the fore front of a number of new technologies recently including engineering for the Telsa electric car based in San Francisco.