Automotive consultancy firm Lotus Engineering, a spin-off of British featherweight sports car parent company Lotus Cars, first collaborated with Toyota Motor Company back in the early '80s in developing the MR2, the Japanese automaker's first production mid-engine sports car.
Continuing its series of link-up projects, according to Automotive News, Lotus Engineering's latest consultation with the California Air Resources Board (CARB) is developing a new Toyota Venza crossover concept.
A study by CARB determined that a 10 percent reduction in vehicle weight can theoretically improve fuel efficiency by up to 8 percent.
To put the study into practice, Lotus worked on a solution that would reduce the weight of the Toyota Venza by a staggering 38 percent. First, Lotus replaced Venza's steel unibody structure with a lighter high-tensile steel, magnesium, aluminum, and carbon composite architecture instead. What's more, Lotus managed to reduce the number of structural components from 400 to just 157 components, an effective reduction of over 57 percent.
While the weight-loss transformation translates to the cost of a $1,000 premium for the consumer, the results promise to deliver an EPA rating above 33 mpg on the highway. In fact, Lotus researchers found that an annual production volume of 50,000 units could help reduce overall fuel consumption by 23 percent while increasing manufacturing costs by only 3 percent.
Pleased with the results, Lotus Engineering North America head Darren Somerset said, "It's a very powerful message that it is possible to reduce mass on a vehicle in a cost effective manner if you approach it in a holistic, system level."
