New Lotus Eletre is a highly desirable sporting electric SUV

When the new Lotus Eletre was first unveiled in Fall 2022, the boldly shaped and controversially sized electric SUV caused quite a stir. Could this car really be called a Lotus, considering it strayed so far from the Norfolk-based company’s traditional preciousness? However, vehicle design and engineering is highly a global concern, a supply chain of parts, technology and talent that stretches across the globe. By contrast, auto marketing is almost provincial, based on flag-waving, national pride, and a solid core of nailed-down cultural identity to get ideas across.

(Image credit: Lotus)

These myths serve as a useful guide for designers to explore, sketch and create a moodboard for the shapes, emotions and feelings that can be used and reinterpreted in the development of a new car. In a sense, this is textbook psychological manipulation. The Eletre is the product of these dark arts, a successful spell conjured from an esoteric list of ingredients spanning novelty, innovation, heritage, aerodynamics and individuality.

The magician in this scenario is Geely, a Chinese mega brand that oversees a bevy of name tags both at home and in markets around the world. Just as BMW has proven an effective brand steward with its adept handling of Mini and Rolls-Royce, Geely has overseen Volvo’s transformation from a staid Scandinavian sidecar into a premium design brand, and spun off Polestar as a technology-focused brand disruptive in the process. There’s also Geely’s own brand, Geely Auto, Lynk & Co, Zeekr, London-based taxi maker LEVC, among others, as well as much of Lotus’s former owners, Proton, and notable stakes in Mercedes-Benz, Smart and Aston Martin.

(Image credit: Lotus)

Under Proton, Lotus continued, catering to a small but loyal customer base. Chapman’s original ethos of subtractive engineering remained the bedrock of his 21st-century creation, from the timeless appeal of the Lotus Elise to the Europa, Evora, Exige and the recent Emira. All of these cars were two-door two-seaters (or two plus a compact two-seater in the case of the Evora) and continued a lineage dating back to cars like the 1962 Elan and 1977 Esprit.

The Geely era was ushered in by the 2019 announcement of the Lotus Evjia, a bold zero-emission hypercar nearing the end of an extensive development cycle. Costing around £2million, the Evija is an electric vehicle with mind-blowing performance and advanced aerodynamics, designed to showcase the full breadth of the company’s capabilities. In addition, a new engineering center was set up in Germany and the design work was carried out at the existing Geely studio in Coventry, the Lotus Tech Creative Centre, while the company itself was split into two branches: Lotus Cars and Lotus Engineering, the latter being the branch continued -Comprehensive advice, which has become a bread and butter business.

(Image credit: Lotus)

Lotus describes the new Eletre as “Born British, Raised Globally” and it’s a very different electric kettle than the Evija. Hypercars aren’t money-makers (often the opposite is true, despite their price). Lotus needed an SUV. The company insists that the lessons learned from the Evija project are transferrable, particularly in the area of ​​aerodynamics. Electric vehicles have to be slippery to get the last joule out of the battery. Visually, the Eletre is more eye-catching than conventionally beautiful. The bodywork lends itself best to bold colors, not the more smoothing gray or neutralizing black that covered half the show fleet. Red, yellow, and a vibrant Galloway green work best, although nothing can disguise the visual bulk of the rear three-quarter view.

(Image credit: Lotus)

An electric vehicle must also be as light as possible to compensate for the still enormous weight of the battery pack. Considering that Lotus’ reputation was built on the art of automotive weight loss, one can understand why the Eletre represents such a departure. The company allays those fears in two ways.

First of all, the Eletre is touted as a “hyper SUV”, underscoring its spiritual and physical connection to the Evija. Second, the new car has been engineered to combine the driving characteristics of a ‘classic’ Lotus, with extremely responsive steering and throttle and an almost telepathic connection with the road.

(Image credit: Lotus)

If anyone can develop these ephemeral but essential qualities, it is Lotus. The challenges of dealing with all this mass require sophisticated adaptive systems that quickly scan the available data and prepare, balance and rebalance the car on the fly. Lotus sent no fewer than 12 engineers to present all the very clever parts of this very clever car. Many of them explored aspects of automotive design that simply had never been incorporated into a Lotus before. Lidar sensors for autonomous driving. A 1,380-watt, 23-speaker stereo system. A brand new HMI system, Lotus Hyper OS. All wheel drive. “Jewelry-grade stainless steel.” Soft close doors. Active rear wheel steering system. Multicolored LED ambient interior lighting. Up to six flat screens in the cabin. massage seats. reversing cameras. Active aerodynamics. The list – and the press release – goes on.

(Image credit: Lotus)

Lotus is also an odd proponent of the whims of autonomous driving. Much emphasis is placed on the Eletre’s built-in pop-up lidar arrays (one above the windshield, one above each front wheel well), which promise to provide an extremely accurate 360-degree image of the vehicle’s surroundings. Ultimately, these will serve as the basis for a Level 4 compliant driving experience, allowing the car to confidently navigate certain roads and conditions such as traffic jams on its own. In practice, as Lotus itself admits, we are not quite there yet. Only a scattered number of roads around the world allows the Tier 4 systems to flourish freely, most notably China.

(Image credit: Lotus)

In the meantime, you can rest assured that the Eletre has a high level of future-proofing. Meanwhile, these sensor packs are busy gathering information – petabytes of it – to send back to base to train the system on the ways of the world. We’ll have to wait to pass judgment on the Eletre’s autonomous capabilities, but its most impressive feat right now is creating a credible luxury brand from scratch. Aside from the yellow badge (and liberal use of yellow bodywork), the Eletre doesn’t really have much in common with its combustion engine predecessors. Even the new Emira bears only a passing familial resemblance. Otherwise, the two cars are chalk and cheese.

(Image credit: Lotus)

A minimalist demonstration at the racetrack didn’t give us much opportunity to feel the limits of the Eletre’s handling, aside from pushing it well beyond what should be experienced on a normal road. In the “R” guise, performance, handling and acceleration are all improved (at the expense of range), with a scarcely believable zero-to-60 mph sprint in less than three seconds. Aside from calling it the “fastest dual-engine all-electric SUV,” it’s not the massive achievement it once was.

For a similar price, a Tesla Model S Plaid achieves similar values ​​and a slightly better range. The Eletre is an overall more elegant package to look at and feel. The steering is beautifully balanced, and while you always have the size of the car in mind, the slightly elevated driving position and airy cabin don’t completely alienate you from your surroundings.

(Image credit: Lotus)

The Eletre S manages 373 miles (600 km) and the R version 304 miles (490 km) – note that these distances were achieved with the smallest wheel size (20″), not the 23″ wheel sizes shown in these photos . Using a smaller wheel design could well impact the proportions of the Eletre; It is significant that Lotus neither provided an example nor had pictures to hand.

All Eletres can use ultra-fast 350kW DC charging, allowing for a 10-80% charge time of 20 minutes. Like the best EV systems, Lotus’ Hyper OS provides a useful overview of available range, nearby chargers (and their status), and includes charging stops in route plans.

(Image credit: Lotus)

In terms of interior and equipment, the Eletre marks a real step change. No one would dispute the fact that old lotus flowers could creak a bit in both design and execution. Ergonomics were sacrificed in favor of driving dynamics, while amenities and accessories were often just an afterthought. In comparison, the Eletre is decked out in screens and switches. The digital cockpit offers slim displays in front of the driver and front passenger, as well as a large head-up display, a large central 15.1 touchscreen and a row of physical buttons.

There’s a screen at the back, the size of which depends on whether you’re going in the five-seat or four-seat layout. Voice recognition comes standard, as does Android Auto and Apple CarPlay, while the dedicated app lets you park the car remotely and other quirky party tricks. The excellent sound system was developed in cooperation with the renowned British audio brand KEF; For those who like to use their car like a cinema, Dolby Atmos is included.

(Image credit: Lotus)

The Eletre represents an undeniable break with the company’s past and is the first of three new electric vehicles to be launched by 2025. Next is a sleek four-door sedan (a competitor to Porsche’s Taycan) as well as a small electric SUV. All share the same multi-faceted design language, with aerodynamically sculpted surfaces thanks to air ducts extending through the body front and rear.