A Green Milestone for the Elise

Lotus Cars just announced that the new 2011 Lotus Elise has been certified with an emissions figure of 149g of CO₂ / km that makes it the cleanest burning gasoline-powered sports car in the world. Not only does this low emissions figure give a greener drive with less guilt but it also relates directly to fuel consumption with the new Elise turning in an impressive figure of 56.1 mpg. This means that the Lotus Elise could travel a colossal 500 miles (800 km) on one tank of fuel – the equivalent of Paris to Marseille or London to Aberdeen, that is if you drive like your granny.

Lotus made a number of improvements to the new Elise to make all this possible. First, the car’s aerodynamics has been improved by 4 percent and a new 1.6-liter inline-4 has been installed, 200 cc smaller than that of the previous model. Despite its smaller size, its output remains the same. It just goes to show that you don’t necessarily have to give up having fun to be green.