Home
News
Esprit Models
Owners
Esprit History
For Sale
Other Stuff
Roadtests
Buying & Running
Parts & Specialists
Other Esprit Stuff
Esprit Production Figures

I have managed to get hold of the Factory Excel Spreadsheet of figures for Esprit Production from 1976 to production end.This is the same file one could find in the factory, used to keep a record of production numbers. It's not perfect, as it doesn't give figures for every different model, but does give a yearly figure for most of the different engine types. You'll see what I mean as you read on.

These figures are the closest you'll get to finding out the official numbers of Esprits made. At the end of production in February 2004, Lotus had made only 10,675 Esprits over a 28 year period with an average of only 381 Esprits made each year. Remember, that figures for the whole world, with Esprits being shipped from Norfolk to Europe and America.

Only when you start looking at the production figure to you real see just how rare Esprits are. Consider that the most made in one year is 1058 in 1988. Which is low, but considering over the rest of the 26 years, yearly figure only topped 500 on 5 occasions and with these numbers spread across the world, I'm surprised anyone's ever seen one!

10,675 Esprits that have been made in total, we would have lost quite a few from crashes, engine fires and generally wear. I guess there are only around 9,000 Esprits in the World. A truly rare automobile.

Production of the Esprit finally finished on 20th February 2004 when the last car was past from Production to Sales

Year
Lotus Esprit Models
Esprit
Total
N/A Turbo HCPI GMP4 INTRCL S4 S300 S4s V8 V8GT S350 GT3
1976*
134
134
1977*
580
580
1978*~
553
553
1979~
474
474
1980~
80
57
137
1981~^
185
116
301
1982^
160
205
365
1983^
84
343
427
1984^
104
418
522
1985^
127
262
62
451
1986^
72
136
246
454
1987#
78
186
198
462
1988
176
387
375
120
1058
1989
90
103
121
563
877
1990
22
51
8
698
779
1991
9
3
113
125
1992
1
172
4
1
178
1993
62
233
25
320
1994
339
30
1
370
1995
46
8
331
385
1996
3
30
260
26
319
1997
5
175
2
97
279
1998
142
99
60
301
1999
123
35
39
13
210
2000
171
48
8
222
2001
81
20
1
101
2002
157
157
2003
119
119
2004
16
16
2919
2274
881
252
1608
625
64
367
1237
204
42
196
10675

* = Esprit N/A Series 1
~ = Esprit N/A Series 2
^ = Esprit N/A Series 3
# = Start of X180 Body Shape (Peter Stevens)

Turbo – Cars with Turbo (Garratt T3) and Dell'orto Carburettors (early cars had twin 40's and later cars had twin 45's)

HCPI   – Cars with Turbo and Bosch 'K' Jetronic Fuel Injection (compression ratio was increased hence the HC)

GMP4 – Cars with General Motors (GM) Fuel Injection (Delco Electronics ECU)
GMP4 – Similar Engine spec to HCPI but with more sophisticated control system to meet stricter USA emissions requirements
GMP4 (has on board diagnostics ability)

INTRCL – Cars with GMP4 Injection and fitted with an Intercooler (water to air) to increase Power.

From Lotus
'As for production figures for HC Giugiaro we are looking at a figure of 308 which will also include Bosch injected cars but it is difficult to give an accurate breakdown of how many were non injected. '

Esprit's imported to North America through Lotus Cars USA, Inc total as follows:

1997 = 132
1998 = 95
1999 = 113 (Esprit V8)
1999 = 8 (Sport 350)
2000 = 91
2001 = 97
2002 = 100
Total = 636 (Dave Simkin, Lotus Cars USA)

I'm currently trying to find out why the chart only has a record of 42 Esprit Sport 350's being built. I was under the impression that around 54 had been produced. I will update when I get an idea of which figure is correct.

Essex Production Numbers
Information from Lotus Cars Ltd

Essex Commemorative Lotus Esprit Turbo
45 Cars were built / used as Essex Units
UK Spec. – 31 Cars (4 Development, 4 Pre. Production & 23 Production)
Export Spec. – 14 Cars (3 Development & 11 Production)
No USA Spec. Cars were produced.

Sport 350 Production Numbers
Information from Lotus Cars Ltd
The original Proposal was to build no more than 50 cars (to keep the model exclusive) All the unique parts were ordered to a maximum of 50 (this included enough of some parts to satisfy Service needs where necessary) Production build totalled 42 cars.

I can confirm this as we ordered 50 sets of 'AP Racing' Blue Front Calipers. At a stock check earlier this year we had 8 sets in stock subsequently used on some Japanese spec. cars. The last of which goes on line next week. I also confirmed the figure by checking the Engine build records:- Between 30th Nov. 1998 (first engine) and 24th Jan. 2000 (last engine) 42 Production engines were built plus 1 for Service stock.

So in all 42 genuine Sport 350 cars were produced at the factory.

UK Registered Esprits
(Source: DfT 2004) by Carl Charlesworth

Since looking at the production figures for the Esprit I was fascinated to know how many are actually left on UK roads. In my case, the S4, I knew that it had to be a lot less than 300. After joining the Lotus Esprit forum recently I decided to pull my finger out and do some chasing around to see what was available. After a week of chasing around different contacts I finally got a useful response from DVLA with a contact number on it. I called them up and spoke to a very helpful chap. After some initial confusion on exactly what figures I wanted he said he understood and still believed he could provide the information I required via email in a couple of hours. Sure enough a few hours later I received the email with the following stats.
I did not provide him with the Esprit types, he was able to list the different versions he had registered.

These are the DVLA numbers of Lotus Esprits registered in the UK during 2004.

Lotus Esprit
397
Lotus Esprit Turbo
386
Lotus Esprit Series 3
1
Lotus Esprit Turbo SE
103
Lotus Esprit Turbo
21
Lotus Esprit S Turbo
4
Lotus Esprit Turbo S4
94
Lotus Esprit Sport 300
7
Lotus Esprit S4s
56
Lotus Esprit V8 Turbo
172
Lotus Esprit GT3
107
Lotus Esprit V8-GT
89
Lotus Esprit Sport 350
25
All Lotus Esprit vechicles
1462
Source: DfT
 

My thanks and credit to Mr M. Gray Aguye at DfT for the getting the figures together.

LEW's Verdict
As you see the figures don't really add up. Only 1 Esprit S3 registered and taxed in 2004 seems a little low. We don't know the exact requirements for a vehicle to make it into these numbers, but we guess, that the vehicle needs to be taxed and have a valid V5 document. We also believe that some of the S3's may have something different on there V5 document. Either just Lotus Esprit, or maybe under turbo. Any UK registered S3 owners might like to email us with what their Esprit has as make and model on there V5. This may help us get to the bottom of these figures and make a little more sense of them.

The total number of UK Esprits is very low, but probably won't included some cars that are currently off the road being fixed or having long-term restoration and may not include Esprit currently with dealers, who may not have re-tax while in the showroom. Having said that, it's not likely to really bump the numbers up too much. So we seem to be looking at under 1800 Esprits in the UK at present. That is unless your all driving around untaxed!!!!

Unfortunately there aren't any figures to how many of the 10,765 Esprit stayed in the UK. A high percentage where shipped to the US and some ended up in Europe. So we are unable to work out if this number is realistic or not. But just think of your Esprit as a little rarer than you thought!

Update
Lotus Esprit World has been contacted by both S2 and S3 owners who have checked their V5 documents and found it to just read 'Lotus Esprit'. So it seems the figures could be more accurate than we first thought.

We'd still like all UK Esprit owners to check their V5's and see what their Esprit is listed as. If it's different from what it should be, please email LEW.

U.S. 1993 Esprit SE

93MY Esprit Turbo SE
The 93MY SE was only imported into the US and limited to 62 cars. It has the majority of the 92MY changes but also included the following changes:

* A larger SE style rear wing, similar to the standard SE wing, but taller and at more of an angle.
* Except for commemorative editions, the 1993MY was the first USA Stevens' model without the glassback design.
* Revolution alloy 5-spoke wheels in painted black with a polished silver lip. These are one-piece clones/imitations of the 16" three-piece wheels found on the X180R race variant and street version limited edition.
* A front rubber lip spoiler to protect the underside of the front valance.

93-1/2MY Esprit Turbo SE
The 931/2MY (93.5) was a transition into the later S4 and was once again only available in the US. It included the following changes:

* Passenger side airbag
* S4-style interior with (slightly) more head, leg, and shoulder room. Window controls mounted on the center console.
* Flush, body-colored, vertically operating exterior door handles instead of the old black horizantal operating handles.
* Wider opening doors.
* A clutch line that routed across the front of the transmission to the passenger's side. The 93 runs straight back the driver's side.

 

home email news esprit models road tests buying an esprit running an esprit esprit owners maintenance pictures for sale history Lotus models links