Lotus Eletre SUV Unveiled, More Lotus EVs Planned
A Lotus EV? If British electronics are involved, isn’t a Lotus EV going to be useful only as a paperweight?
I kid, I kid. Lotus, however, is dead serious — the Lotus Eletre is here, and the company calls it “the world’s first electric Hyper-SUV”.
Cutting through the press-release hyperbole, we see that Lotus is building the first of three planned new EVs, with plans to launch all three over the next three years.
Key specs include a power output that starts at 600 horsepower, a battery pack with a 100 kWh capacity, a 350kW charge time of 20 minutes that will give you 248 miles of range, and an overall maximum range of about 373 miles. Lotus also claims a 0-62 mph time of under 3 seconds.
The battery pack and electric motors are “skateboard” style, meaning they’re close to the ground to keep the center of gravity low. There are two electric motors, one driving the front wheels and one driving the rear. The suspension is five-link at the rear, and the car has a standard air suspension and damping control. Adjustable ride height, anti-roll bar, torque vectoring, and rear-axle steering are available.
Drive modes include an off-road mode.
The company will use Lidar as a base for advanced driving-assistance aids (ADAS), and carbon-fiber and aluminum (say it in a British accent, it’s fun) are used heavily in an effort to reduce weight.
Manufacturing will begin at an all-new plant in Wuhan, China later this year. Yes, that Wuhan.
The company’s release sure isn’t short of hyperbole. To wit: “A momentous point in our history” – Matt Windle, MD (Managing Director, we assume), Lotus Car.
“The Eletre, our Hyper-SUV, is for those who dare to look beyond the conventional and marks a turning point for our business and brand” – Qingfeng Feng, CEO, Group Lotus
I suppose Windle isn’t totally wrong — a Lotus SUV was once nigh unthinkable. But the world is changing, and Lotus is changing with it.
Other key features include a rear spoiler that deploys at speed, flush door handles, a choice between four or five seats, a fixed panoramic sunroof, wireless cell-phone charging, ambient lighting that communicates various things, such as level of battery charge; voice-recognition controls; digital and analog controls; premium audio; a thin gauge cluster; fold-flat infotainment screen; and a head-up display that uses augmented reality.
Various ADAS features, some of which can be updated over the air, include smart cruise control, collision-mitigation support, front and rear cross-traffic alert, traffic-sign information, lane-change assist, lane-keep aid with lane-departure warning and prevention, and child-presence detection.
A Lotus SUV. We’ve lived to see the day.
[Images: Lotus]
Tim Healey grew up around the auto-parts business and has always had a love for cars — his parents joke his first word was “‘Vette”. Despite this, he wanted to pursue a career in sports writing but he ended up falling semi-accidentally into the automotive-journalism industry, first at Consumer Guide Automotive and later at Web2Carz.com. He also worked as an industry analyst at Mintel Group and freelanced for About.com, CarFax, Vehix.com, High Gear Media, Torque News, FutureCar.com, Cars.com, among others, and of course Vertical Scope sites such as AutoGuide.com, Off-Road.com, and HybridCars.com. He’s an urbanite and as such, doesn’t need a daily driver, but if he had one, it would be compact, sporty, and have a manual transmission.
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Beautiful interior, some extremely clever engineering worthy of the Lotus name. But, wrapped in an SUV form factor. The problem with SUVs is that it's very difficult to tell a $250,000 one from a $45,000 one out in the world. They all have the same envelope shape, the same hard-points the same length of overhangs.
If, when walking up to the Lotus, the remote trunk release on the key fob takes four extra pushes on the button to open and then you load some food in the trunk that will get cooked by the engine nearby on your short drive home, and then you must literally crouch and hop over a foot wide sill into a too small seat all the while hoping the car will start and when it does, it takes five minutes of going through cryptic menus to do a simple thing and then the car gets hotter because the A/C has gone on holiday and the check engine light comes on again...If none of that happens with your new Lotus, then it's not a real Lotus. Their new motto: Lotus. We weed out the weak. I want to imagine a crossover Exige. Like everyone else, jack it up a few inches and add some black plastic trim. But keep it Lotus-like. Racing seats that cause back pain after 30 minutes. Buttons that control critical things like ignition buried between the seats somewhere. A door sill so high and wide that women with short skirts on have to be extra careful. Light fiberglass, plastic windows, and still powered by a Corolla engine. Be different Lotus. You have all of the time in the past.