The British International Motor Show’s just about a little over a week away. One of the attractions of the show is the Greener Driving Pavilion which will showcase green initiatives from automakers as a part of the whole save-the-earth through gas-sippers move.

The Lotus Elise has been known to be that agile sports car that could take on more massive cars in winding roads due to its lightweightedness that improves its handling. Its 1.8L engine isn’t really a gas-guzzler compared to other cars and the fact that the car’s light improves fuel efficiency.

Now, they’ve decided that they’d make the car even more fuel-efficient in the Lotus Eco Elise. In true Elise fashion, they just trimmed off some more weight out. They took a Lotus Elise S, put it on a treadmill to shave off 70.5 lbs, and called it Eco. This was done by swapping some of the body panels to sustainable hemp technical fibers. Au natural.

The carpets are even made from sisal, a renewable crop yet abrasives-resistant. The paint on this thing is totally water-based (eliminating solvent emissions into the atmosphere). You just have to wonder whether it will wash off though. A few geek-greening they did here was slapping on a solar panel to help charge the car battery. They also placed a shift light to help drivers achieve bang-on shifting to avoid unnecessary revving.

Source: RevMods