In 1962, the Lotus Elan designed by Ron Hickman (who later made his fortune with the design of the Black & Decker Workmate), was the successor to the not very successful Lotus Elite I. At the beginning, the two-seater Elan was only available as a roadster, an optional hard-top was available from 1963 and the coupé version was presented in 1965. Colin Chapman, director and founder of Lotus, strived for an as-light-as-possible-but-still-powerful design. With 105 to 115 hp and a weight of about 680 kg, the project proved to be successful. In order to achieve this the Elan, as the first Lotus, was equipped with a steel backbone chassis and a fiber glass body. The Elan was technically advanced for its time with the 1557 cc Lotus Twin Cam engine, double overhead camshaft (DOHC), rack-and-pinion steering, disc brakes and independent suspension. The car proved to be very nimble and was remarkably easy to handle. A top speed of 120 mph (190 km / h) could easily be achieved.

The Series 2 with a polished instead of matte dashboard and restyled taillights was introduced in 1964. In 1965 the fixed-head coupé version (S3) followed. A four-seater Elan +2, on a slightly longer wheelbase and with two small seats in the back, also found its way to the buyer.

A total of around 17 000 copies of the Elan were sold between 1962 and 1975. These sales figures made the Elan the savior of Lotus, that was stretched thin by the production of the expensive and exotic Elite.

In the 90s, the success story was revived with the Lotus Elan M100, again with Chapmans performance-through-weight-reduction philosophy in mind. From 1996 to 1999 South Korean KIA built the Elan. In 2010 a new Elan was announced for 2013, sadly it never entered production.