Lotus Towing Capacity by Model
On this page you can browse the 10 Lotus cars, trucks, and SUVs across 1 unique Lotus models that we have towing capacity and payload information for.
Use the links below to see more details in the Lotus model you're interested in - sorted by year of production and then by trim.
How Good are Lotus Vehicles for Towing?
Lotus is a British automotive company that is known for manufacturing sports cars and racing cars. The company generally aims to create lightweight, fast and agile vehicles making for fun and exciting drives.
Two University of London graduates, Colin Chapman and Colin Dare, with their degrees in engineering combined to found Lotus Engineering Ltd in 1952. The roots of the company date back even further however to when Chapman built a race car in his garage in 1948.
Converting an old stable in Hornsey, London the two engineers created their first factory. Out of this factory was born Team Lotus which would split from Lotus Engineering in 1954 and start competing in Formula One racing between 1958 and 1994.
In 1959 the Lotus Group of Companies was formed which included Lotus car Limited and Lotus Components Limited. These companies combined focused on road car and customer competition car production. Also in the same year the company moved to a purpose built facility at Cheshunt, Hertfordshire.
The early cars were aimed at privateer race car drivers so were not really designed as on the road vehicles. Their early cars were sold as kit cars that customers had to assemble themselves; this allowed a saving on purchase taxes. In 1962 however the Lotus Elan would be the first model offered not as a kit car.
Following on from The Elan a series of sporty high performance road cars were released ranging from two-seaters to four-seaters but most being low to the ground.
We come to the matter at hand then, can a Lotus offer us anything in terms of towing ability? When it comes to Lotus this is very much a case of just because you can should you really do it?
Obviously Lotus cars are designed to be driven without towing anything behind them. You don’t go out there and buy a Lotus with the purpose of using it to tow anything but this does not mean that they can’t be used in this way if needed.
The capacity for the majority of Lotus vehicles might at most be around 1,000 lbs. of towing but this will depend on the model. You will very likely need to fit a towing setup to the car and with some this simply might not work at all.
There is an electric SUV on the way from Lotus however but as of yet there is no indication as to if this has any notable towing capacity. The Eletra as it is so-named is described as an all-electric Hyper-SUV and does look impressive. This model may be worth watching out for if you are looking for a Lotus that can tow.