The 2026 Lotus Emira still wears two ducts in the hood

The headlamps on this bright blue Emira are dark. The hood duct above the lamp nearest the camera is a dark recess, and the other is lost in sky reflection on the hood. A round yellow-and-green Lotus badge sits on the blue nose, above the plate and the black mesh intake. The plate reads REGISTERED. The wheels are black multi-spoke with yellow calipers. A large black intake opens behind the door, under a black roof and a black mirror. The car is at a curb on a city street.

Lotus’s U.S. Emira page, checked October 26, 2026, calls those hood openings purposeful, angular bonnet ducts. The same sentence gives each headlamp a double “blade” daytime running light. The lamps in the photograph are dark, so the blade stays on the page. One duct is the piece clearly in the frame. The page pairs a 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder and an eight-speed dual-clutch with the Turbo, the Turbo SE, and the 420 Sport, and a supercharged 3.5-liter V6 with a six-speed manual on the V6 SE. The file is a 2024 Lotus Emira First Edition in Seneca Blue, dated August 18, 2024, and categorized with Lotus vehicles in the Philippines.

The 2026 changes sit elsewhere

Lotus’s June 5, 2025 note introduces the 2026 Emira V6 SE and the Emira Turbo. The note is from Hethel, and the prices it prints are the UK and German figures. What it names as new is EOS Green and Purple Haze metallic, cooling lines routed a different way, a recalibrated dual-clutch, and, on the V6 SE, badges, an extended Black Pack, 20-inch forged wheels, and red brake calipers. It calls the six-cylinder powertrain unchanged.

EPA’s 2026 Emira page has one U.S. row: a 2.0-liter four-cylinder with an eight-speed automatic, on regular gasoline, at 18 city, 26 highway, and 21 combined. NHTSA’s 2026 model list includes Emira and Eletre. The June note also lists an optional automatic for the V6, in the release with the UK and German prices. The EPA row is the four-cylinder automatic.

The U.S. page’s 420 Sport block says the car was unleashed in summer 2026 and, in the same block, that it is arriving this summer, with an upgraded 2.0-liter engine, striking new aerodynamic features, and a handling pack. The features remain that phrase. The angular bonnet ducts are in the front sentence on the Emira page, and the grades named there are Turbo, Turbo SE, V6 SE, and 420 Sport. First Edition is the name on the blue car’s file.

One vent in the flank, and thin strips at the back

The page also says multiple air vents guide air through the car as well as around it. On the yellow Emira the opening in the frame is the black intake behind the door, under a black roof and a black mirror. The headlamps are dark, and the hood duct above the near lamp is a dark recess. A round yellow-and-green Lotus badge sits on the yellow nose, above the black lower intake. The plate reads A024 FXH. The wheels are black multi-spoke with red calipers. It stands on a gray block-paved forecourt in front of a dark glass-and-brick building.

The file calls this a 2024 Lotus Emira First Edition, and the photograph is dated July 10, 2024. A024 FXH is a British front plate. A red caliper shows in the wheel. The June note’s red calipers are the V6 SE line, and the title on this file is First Edition.

The car in Stuttgart is golden yellow, seen from the left rear on gray block paving at a crowded meet, with people standing behind it, an orange Emira at the right edge, and a dark car and a green car behind at the left. The roof and mirror are black. Three black louvered slots sit in the black engine-cover glass behind the roof. The taillamps are thin, dark-red horizontal strips at the top corners of the rear, with a black spoiler line between them. Black L O T U S lettering is centered under that line, and no round badge is visible on the rear. A black mesh vent sits at each outer rear corner, outboard and below each lamp. A white EU plate reads S LO 400 in the center of the black lower section, with one round exhaust tip on each side. The rear wheel is a black multi-spoke with a yellow caliper.

The file calls it a Lotus Emira in Stuttgart, dated July 23, 2023, and does not give a model year. The U.S. page calls this rear flat C-shaped LED lights, two gloss black vents, a gloss black diffuser, and two exhaust pipes set into it. From this angle the lamps read as thin red strips across the corners, and the vents sit at the outer corners.

The blue car is the duct above a dark lamp. The yellow car is the intake behind the door. The car in Stuttgart is thin red strips across the rear corners and a black mesh vent at each outer corner. Lotus’s page calls those lamps flat C-shaped LED lights.