The Lotus APX (APX stands for ''Aluminium Performance Crossover'') is a

concept car A concept car (also known as a concept vehicle, show vehicle or prototype) is a car made to showcase new styling and/or new technology. They are often exhibited at motor shows to gauge customer reaction to new and radical designs which may or ...

created by the British automobile

marque A brand is a name, term, design, symbol or any other feature that distinguishes one seller's good or service from those of other sellers. Brands are used in business, marketing, and advertising for recognition and, importantly, to create an ...

, Lotus. It was first introduced at the 2006 Geneva Motor Show, and was also displayed as the Proton MSX. It is the first complete vehicle built on the new

Versatile Vehicle Architecture Lotus Cars Limited is a British automotive company headquartered in Norfolk, England which manufactures sports cars and racing cars noted for their light weight and fine handling characteristics. Lotus was previously involved in Formula One ...

(VVA). This vehicle is also a first for Lotus, as it is the first

crossover SUV A crossover, crossover SUV, or crossover utility vehicle (CUV) is a type of automobile with an increased ride height that is built on unibody chassis construction shared with passenger cars, as opposed to traditional sport utility vehicles ( ...

they have ever built. It was to have entered production as the

Youngman Youngman (officially China Youngman Automobile Group Co., Ltd.) () was a Chinese manufacturer of buses and trucks located in Jinhua, Zhejiang province. The company was founded in 2001 by Pang Qingnian and also used to manufacture automobiles ...

Lotus T5, but was cancelled.

Engine

The APX uses a Lotus designed and developed 3.0 liter supercharged V6 engine. The power output of this engine is 300 hp (224 kW) at 6250 rpm with a torque of at 4500 rpm. It can go from 0–60 mph (97 km/h) in 5 seconds. The APX's top speed is 152 mph (245 km/h). The suspension of the APX makes it perfect for off-road use (another first for the Lotus brand) with its permanent 4 wheel drive. The combined fuel consumption is estimated to be around . Also shown at the NADA 2007 show was an all-electric 4-wheel drive version of the APX, with 0–60 mph times of 4.8sec. The licensing distributor, ZAP, states it has a capacity of up to 324 wheel horsepower, up to range, recharge in as little as 10 minutes, and a top speed of up to . They claim up to 9,000 recharge cycles and 1 penny per mile recharge costs.

Design

The APX exterior is all-

aluminium Aluminium (aluminum in American and Canadian English) is a chemical element with the symbol Al and atomic number 13. Aluminium has a density lower than those of other common metals, at approximately one third that of steel. I ...

. The interior features digital screens, futuristic gadgets, and many buttons.

References

Lotus APX Info from ConceptCarz.comLotus APX Demonstrator from Zapworld.com
{{Lotus

APX In computational complexity theory, the class APX (an abbreviation of "approximable") is the set of NP optimization problems that allow polynomial-time approximation algorithms with approximation ratio bounded by a constant (or constant-factor ap ...

Concept cars Cars introduced in 2006