According to sources, the electric folding roof mechanism couldn't be installed without compromising the drivability of the car, and thus the decision was made to get rid of the rear-seats and make a two-seater roadster.
Nevertheless, the new convertible variant should help the Evora compete against similar offerings from Porsche, which Lotus feels is one of its biggest competitors at the moment. According to Autocar, this was also the reasoning behind the decision to introduce new automatic paddle-shift gearboxes in next year's Evora, and the move should help the car present a better case to potential customers also considering the Porsche Cayman.
On top of these two updates for the Evora, there’s also expected to be a highly anticipated supercharged variant within the next two years. Picking up the SC moniker, expect as much as 400hp (298kW) from the forced-fed 3.5L engine. The standard model produces 276hp (206kW).
The Evora convertible, meanwhile, won’t arrive until a year after the SC, which puts its release date somewhere around the 2012 mark.
Source: http://car.ohbabe.info/ver2/?cmd=act:news|newsid:2310
