This trio accounts for almost half of Lotus’ total production over its 73-year existence.

Lotus has ended production of the Elise and Exige to make way for the Emira. In 1996, the Elise Series 1 was introduced by the Norfolk-based sports car brand. The hotter Exige followed in 2000 and then the more civilized Evora in 2009. Each of these models received many derivatives over the years. Now, the British brand is biding farewell to them all at once.

This 26-year period saw 51,738 vehicles produced. This is nearly half of Lotus’ entire production run since Colin Chapman founded Lotus in 1948. The Elise/Exige “small car platform”, was also used by the 340R and Europa, 2-Eleven and 3-Eleven vehicles, as well as non Lotus models like the Opel Speedster / Vauxhall VX220, and the Tesla Roadster. These underpinnings combined served as the backbone of 56,618 vehicles.

The Hennessey Venom GT, of which only 13 units were produced (seven Coupes as well as six Spyders), used a modified version of the same platform. It was the world’s fastest car and set many other speed records before being replaced by the Texas-based tuner, the Venom.

The trio that is the most complete are a yellow Elise Sport 240 Final Edition and a Heritage Racing Green Exige Cup 430 Final Edition as well as a dark metallic grey Evora GT430 Sport. These cars will remain in Lotus’ heritage collection and they won’t be sold. Geely owned company has assembled 35,124 Elise models and 10,497 Exige models.

The new Emira will replace them. It will go into production at the same facility that the limited-run, all-electric Evija hypercar is assembled. The new electric SUV will be added to Lotus’s product line-up next spring. It will be manufactured at a new Wuhan factory.