Lotus is poised to offer a V8 option for its Emira sports car as the company looks to expand the appeal of its sole combustion-engined model.

The Geely-owned company is committed to offering a higher-powered version of the Emira, CEO Feng Qingfeng told investors on the company’s recent earnings call. “We are currently investigating the feasibility of the V8,” he said.

Currently, Lotus offers V6 and four-cylinder turbo options for the Emira.

Both offer 400bhp but Feng ruled out boosting the power of the V6 because the Toyota-sourced unit won’t comply with upcoming Euro 7 emissions regulations.

Lotus had intended to phase out the V6 in favour of the Mercedes-AMG-supplied four-cylinder unit, but the six-cylinder has been enduringly popular in the US, the world’s largest sports car market, prompting the investigation into fitting a bigger engine.

The Emira is built in Lotus’s plant in Hethel, UK, and last year hit a sales record of 5272 deliveries.

“The US is an incredibly important market for us for the car. It always has been. So we're looking at the market demand for the product going forward,” Hethel boss and new CEO of Lotus Cars in Europe Matt Windle told Autocar. 

Windle didn’t confirm the V8 but did say the company is looking into other power options. “It's a very, very competent product that we probably haven't exploited to its full already, so we are looking at all the options,” he said.

Supplier AMG could be tapped for the V8. “There are some opportunities with the current supplier of engines, so we're looking at it,” Windle said, without naming the Mercedes division.

AMG also supplies its 4.0 twin-turbo V8 to Aston Martin for fitment into cars such as the Vantage sports car and DBX SUV. However, it remains to be seen how much adaptation the mid-engined Emira’s compact frame would require in order to accommodate a larger engine.

The potential launch of a new V8 Lotus would be the first for the company since it dropped the Esprit V8 from its line-up in 2004 after a run of eight years.

Feng’s announcement that the company is considering a V8 came in response to a question from a US dealer who suggested the company should offer a stripped-down, high-power V6 that would be quick enough to challenge the Porsche 911 GT3.

The 510bhp 911 GT3 starts at £158,200 in the UK, considerably more than the £92,500 Emira V6, thus giving Lotus the chance to raise its average selling price and help reverse company losses.

Lotus has halted shipments of the British-built Emira to the US after the new 25% tariff was applied in April, meaning that no cars are currently heading to a market that last year accounted for a fifth of all Lotus sales. Lotus cancelled sales of the Eletre SUV and Emeya saloon EVs in the US after the country imposed 145% tariffs on Chinese-built goods.

The deal recently agreed between the UK and US to lower tariffs on UK-built goods to 10% has helped Lotus, but Windle has yet to  restart shipments to the US as he waits for the details.

"The headline numbers have gone out there, but actually the specifics behind it still haven't been clarified,” he said. “There's product that's ready to ship, but what we don't want to do is jump the gun and end up getting clobbered."

Lotus had intended to replace the combustion-engined Emira with an electric sports car but it is currently assessing the market before giving it the green light. “Is the market ready for an electric sports car? I don't really know the answer to that yet,” said Windle.