Lotus gearing up for sales drive in US

NORFOLK-based sports car maker Lotus is revving up efforts to boost sales in the US with the launch next year of a tailored version of its popular Elise model.

The company, owned by Malaysia's Perusahaan Otomobil Nasional - Proton - hopes to start offering the racy model by May. It last launched a car in the US in 1990, when it touted the Elan.

'We'd like to see our performance improve on the West Coast,' Mark O'Shaughnessy, director of sales and marketing for Lotus Cars USA, told reporters as the new Elise was paraded at the Los Angeles motor show.

Lotus has sold 17,000 of the cars since the Elise was launched in Europe seven years ago. It hopes to garner 2,000 sales a year in the US.

The carmaker is aiming its sales push at wealthy older men who want to add a third or fourth car to their collection, or younger clients willing to splash out on a high-performance model. The selling price for the US model has yet to be revealed.

Proton is facing growing competition in its home market, especially from Japanese imports.