Lotus has taken the wraps off its brand new sports tourer, which joins the carmaker's lineup alongside the current Elise, Exige and Europa models when it begins production early next year. Called the Evora (named after a city in Portugal), the new car is designed to be a kinder, gentler Lotus that's more accessible and less intimidating than the rest of the carmaker's offerings, though still abundantly capable on or off the track.

Building on its flexible and world-renowned Elise platform, Lotus has unveiled a new concept car called the Eco Elise that it plans to showcase in less than a fortnight at the London Motor Show. Employing environmentally-friendly materials and lightweight construction techniques to render a car that’s as capable as it is ecological, the new concept shows that being green doesn’t have to come at the cost of performance.

Lotus sports cars are legendary for their blend of lightweight and manageable power, resulting in agile handling and brisk acceleration. The Lotus Elise SC adds to the already potent Elise package with a supercharger feeding the hungry four-cylinder for over 60kW more power than the Elise S.

The U.K.’s Caterham Sportscars builds Lotus Seven-type roadsters designed to be road-legal and track-worthy. The R500 Superlight takes the company’s minimalist approach to the extreme, shrinking the car’s weight to a mere 506kg but still pumping out 385kW per tonne and accelerating to 100km/h in under three seconds.

Pedestrian safety groups in the U.S. are calling for laws requiring hybrid vehicles to be equipped with noise-making devices so that they may be heard over the din of the average street.