[wallabyguy]

federalizing the 2-Eleven is a lot harder than you may think. Things like windshield requirements, impact requirements, interior crash standards, etc. would cost quite a bit and leave you with a heavily modified vehicle from it's initial concept which would still only appeal to maybe, let's be very generous here, 200 buyers in the US per year. On the other hand, you could build the Evora which is expected to sell 500-800 min per year in the US. It will be the basis for several variants including a convertible, 2 seater, HO version, etc. It is a consumer retention vehicle and also opens Lotus up to a much larger market. The Evora also acts as a bridge and thus a marketing tool for the next MSC (a.k.a. Esprit). So while the project does cost more, it makes more sense for the company over the long run.