The sports car could be offered with a V8 engine option as the British brand looks to expand the appeal of its sole combustion-engined model. Speaking at the Geely-owned company’s recent earnings call, CEO Feng Qingfeng said, “We are currently investigating the feasibility of the V8.”

In most markets, Lotus offers supercharged V6 and four-cylinder turbo-petrol options for the Emira – India gets only the latter, priced from Rs 3.22 crore. Feng ruled out boosting the power of the current 400hp, 3.5-litre V6 engine because the -sourced unit will not comply with upcoming Euro 7 emissions regulations. Lotus had intended to phase out the V6 in favour of the -supplied four-cylinder unit, but the six-cylinder has been enduringly popular in the US – the world’s largest sports car market – prompting the investigation into fitting a bigger engine.

“The US is an incredibly important market for us for the Emira. It always has been. So we're looking at the market demand for the product going forward,” the new CEO of Lotus Cars in Europe, Matt Windle, told our sister publication Autocar UK.  Windle didn’t confirm the V8 but did say the company is looking into other power options. “It’s a very, very competent product that we probably haven’t exploited to its full already, so we are looking at all the options,” he said.

Supplier AMG could be tapped for the V8. “There are some opportunities with the current supplier of engines, so we’re looking at it,” Windle said, without naming the Mercedes division. AMG also supplies its 4.0 twin-turbo V8 to for fitment into cars, such as the sports car and SUV. However, it remains to be seen how much adaptation the mid-engined Emira’s compact frame would require in order to accommodate a larger engine.

The potential launch of a new V8 Lotus would be the first for the company since it dropped the Esprit V8 from its line-up in 2004, after a run of eight years.

The Emira is built at Lotus’ plant in Hethel, UK, and last year, it hit a sales record of 5,272 deliveries. The company had halted deliveries of the British-built Emira to the US after a new 25 percent tariff was imposed in April. This means that the market, which accounted for a fifth of all Lotus sales (about 1,000 units), saw no new models arrive. The British brand also cancelled sales of the  SUV and  sedan EVs in the US following the imposition of a 145 percent tariff on Chinese-built goods. However, a recently agreed deal between the UK and the US to lower tariffs on UK-built goods to 10 percent has helped Lotus, but shipments to the US have yet to restart, as further details are required.

Lotus had intended to replace the combustion-engined Emira with an electric sports car, but it is currently assessing the market before giving it the green light. “Is the market ready for an electric sports car? I don't really know the answer to that yet,” said Windle.

Considering the recent , the (Rs 3.22 crore) could see a reduction. Mini India recently announced a , which is produced at the brand’s plant in Oxford, United Kingdom. The scheme is meant to pass on the benefits of any reduction in the ’s price in the near future.

All prices, ex-showroom, India