Nobody has it harder than Lotus right now. While you can argue that choosing to go all-EV is a questionable decision, now that the choice has been made the brand has two huge problems: 1. Lotus built its brand on lightweight sports cars, when electric cars are heavy. And 2. Lotus cars are built in China, and Chinese EVs are getting a 100% tariff. So basically, the brand is selling expensive, heavy cars, leaving people to wonder what the brand even stands for anymore. Still, despite this rather un-overlook-able predicament, let’s overlook that and evaluate the new Lotus Eletre electric SUV on its own merits. I drove it around suburban LA, and I have to admit: I like it! Here’s why.
If you had asked me to help Lotus make as much money as possible, I’d have told the company to build an SUV like Porsche, Ferrari, Lamborghini, and pretty much anyone who values solvency has done. Specifically, in the case of Lotus, I’d have suggested a range-extended electric SUV — one with a small 35 kWh battery and a small gasoline range extender. Why? Because building a non-hybrid, fully electric SUV that gets any decent range whatsoever requires a huge battery, and a huge battery means lots of cost and weight.
[Full Disclosure: Beau and I drove a preproduction Lotus Eletre R. While I could evaluate this car any way I want, it’s worth noting that Beau and Galpin sell Lotus cars. -DT].
The Lotus Eletre has a gigantic 112-kWh unit, so the vehicle weighs over 5,500 pounds and starts at about $110,000. This is not the way. Hybrid should have been the way, even if only because people are loving hybrids in 2024.
But alas, as I said earlier, Lotus decided to go all-electric, so it will have to reap what it sows. Though what it has sown is, as far as electric SUVs go, quite good.
What Is The Lotus Eletre?
The Lotus Eletre is not only the very first Lotus SUV, it’s also the first all-electric Lotus. More than anything, though, it represents a fork in the road for the storied British brand as it tries to become all-electric while still maintaining a shred of dignity as a historical purveyor of lightweight sports cars.
How is Lotus trying to do that? Well, it’s built what it calls a “hyper-SUV” that may not really emphasize lightweight design, but tries making up for it in pretty much every other area: power, styling, quality, tech, and chassis design.
Power is prodigious. The standard Eletre makes 603 horsepower and 523 lb-ft of torque from its two electric motors — one on each axle. The Eletre that I drove, though, was the “R” model, which cranks out an insane 905 horsepower and 726 lb-ft of torque. That’s good, because the vehicle weighs over 5,800 pounds. Even the base Eletre only narrowly comes in under 5,500.
Adding Styling
It seems Lotus’ legendary “add lightness” philosophy has — at least for the Eletre — morphed into “add power.” And also “add styling.”
Yes, I said “add styling,” because that’s what the Evora has done. This is not an understated Lotus like you’re used to, this is an over-the-top, alien-looking machine covered in all sorts of vents and wings and inlets and scoops — it may be just another SUV from on paper, but it certainly stands out with its styling. Check it out:
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The headlights are actually the ones down below, hidden on the outboard edges of the dark, carbon fiber-covered “grille slot.” Inboard of the lights are the holes that exhaust out of the hood (see Autopian cofounder Beau and me shaking hands through this duct), and outboard but still in the slot are vents that exhaust in the wheel wells:
Here in this driving shot you can see the driver’s side vent outlet. You can also see another slit at the leading edge of the front door:
The most impressive aero features, in my view, are the amazing hexagonal Active Grille Shutters way down at the bottom of the front fascia. Look at how they are made up of six equilateral triangles that “lean back” to allow airflow into the cooling module when needed:
The rear of the car is equally as wild. Here’s another wheel-well-duct handshake photo:
There are also two oddly-shaped wings (a “split floating spoiler”) at the top of the rear hatch; plus an “air blade” in the D-pillar; and another rear spoiler, but active this time:
Lotus breaks down the new Eletre’s “porous” styling in its press release, writing:
The ‘carved by air’ design ethos as seen in the Evija hypercar and Emira sports car is much more than skin deep, and seamlessly integrates a raft of active aerodynamic technologies which together enhance efficiency, performance and dynamics, and contribute to a drag coefficient of just 0.26.
One of the most significant features is the active front grille. An integral part of the Emira and Evija-inspired front end design, this comprises a row of seven individual apertures, each one featuring six triangular petals. These petals smoothly open and close on demand to meet the Eletre’s requirements for cooling airflow to the powertrain’s e-motors and radiators, and to the brakes.
Crucially, in colder markets, they can stay closed to retain heat. Unique to the Eletre R, if the driver selects Track Mode, the grille is always fully open, helping to ensure the vehicle can deliver sustained, high-performance driving and braking.
The Electric Reverse Mirror Displays (ERMD)1, which use high-definition cameras to stream the view behind the vehicle to six-inch displays in the front doors, have a much smaller frontal area than traditional rear view mirrors. As well as enhanced vision, the ERMD technology can reduce the wind resistance coefficient by up to 1.5 per cent, further improving aero performance and useable range.
Delivering the same benefit is the deployable, state-of-the-art LIDAR sensor mounted at the top of the windscreen and front wheel arches. These remain hidden when not in use by the Eletre’s comprehensive suite of advanced driver assistance systems..
Another innovation is the Eletre’s active rear spoiler, packaged neatly into the tailgate. Working in combination with the distinctive split floating roof spoiler above, it automatically adjusts between three positions, depending on vehicle speed, acceleration, braking and Drive Mode setting.
When deployed at an angle of 18º, the spoiler can reduce the drag coefficient by up to 1.8%, while also increasing downforce by up to 60kg; moving to 32º increases the drag coefficient slightly, by 1.8%, but more than doubles downforce to 112.5kg. Fully deployed to 34º delivers maximum deceleration to assist maximum braking effort.
Wow; 0.26 drag coefficient; not bad!
Adding Driver-Assist Tech
So the Lotus Eletre makes absurd power and it looks out of this world. On top of those, it’s also filled with all sorts of tech. As mentioned in the quote above, the photo before shows a split floating spoiler that allows for space in the middle for a LIDAR sensor. You can also see deployable LIDAR sensors just above each front wheel arch, plus there’s a deployable one at the top of the windshield:
That’s four LIDAR sensors. But that’s just the start, as Lotus notes in its press release. There’s a fatigue warning, adaptive cruise control, a bunch of cameras and radar sensors and a thing called Life Detection and Care. Here’s how Lotus describes it:
To deliver [safety and relaxing journeys], a full complement of state-of-the-art sensors are used: 34 in total, including the four deployable LIDAR, six radar, seven 8MP HD cameras and 12 ultrasonic sensors. All together, they give the vehicle a true 360º view of the world around it.
To manage real-time processing of this wealth of data are two NVIDIA Orin-X chips, which provide a computing power capability of 500 TOPS – a phenomenal 500 trillion operations per second – and provide a fail-safe system architecture for enhanced functional safety. This level of technology, together with software and feature updates over-the-air, ensures that the Eletre not only provides the very latest ADAS functionality but is also able to deliver Level 4 autonomous driving capability as market regulations allow.
Eletre customers will be able to benefit from Highway Assist, which is designed to make long distance motorway driving more comfortable. Available from 30-150km/h, this builds on the Adaptive Cruise Control system’s management of speed and distance to vehicles in front by also automatically keeping the vehicle centred in its lane – even in bends.
Tiredness and driver distraction are among the main causes of road accidents, so Lotus has developed a Driver Monitoring System (DMS) which can help and support the driver if it determines that they’re not focused on the road ahead. Inside the cabin, near-infrared light is sent out which is reflected by the driver’s eyes and picked up by a camera: this determines, through filtering and complex calculations, where the driver is looking. Combined with other inputs such as the rate and duration of every blink, how the mouth is closed or open, and the way in which the vehicle is being driven, DMS can determine if there is a risk of them falling asleep or not paying attention to the road ahead. If these scenarios occur, visual and audible warnings are triggered, encouraging the driver to stop and take a break.
Another innovation is Life Detection and Care – a system designed to protect children or pets inadvertently left inside a locked vehicle. Should this occur, CPD will initiate three levels of warning: within 10 seconds of the vehicle being locked, the Eletre’s horn will sound and the lights will flash, and a notification will be sent to the driver. If the driver doesn’t act, the signals from the horn and lights will continue for five minutes. If no action is taken after five minutes and the temperature inside the cabin exceeds 35ºC, an emergency call will be made to the authorities to alert them to the potential risk, the windows will be lowered and a new notification will be sent to the driver.
Power, styling, safety tech — but there’s more. Way more. Specifically inside the car.
Adding Interior Tech
Here’s how Lotus describes all the tech in the cabin, which I’ll talk about more in a second:
The central touchscreen is a slimline, deployable, 15.1-inch HD OLED design that’s only 10mm thick. Able to display beautifully crisp, clear images using over 16 million colours, it offers exceptional clarity and a truly immersive experience for the driver. Navigation functionality, developed with HERE Technologies (for European markets), includes EV Routing, EV Range Assistant and Predictive Routing. Beneath the touchscreen in the centre console is a wireless device charger to complement wireless Apple CarPlay and Android Auto2.
The front seat passenger has a high-definition touchscreen of their own, enabling them to control media playback and see information corresponding to voice control commands or receive prompts such as fasten seatbelt. In the rear, passengers can control climate control settings, seat adjustments, ambient lighting and media playback through a further HD touchscreen – an eight-inch or nine-inch deployable display for five-seat or four-seat configurations respectively.
The 12.6-inch HD OLED instrument cluster behind the steering wheel is paired with a 29-inch head-up display (HUD) to help the driver keep their eyes on the road. By projecting graphics which help to convey key information such as navigation or advanced driver assistance system alerts over corresponding objects up ahead, the HUD can make it quicker and easier for the driver to understand what’s happening around them, reducing distraction and enhancing safety.
Ensuring that every occupant can enjoy an unrivalled music experience, the Eletre offers two audio systems developed with KEF. KEF Premium is a 1,380-watt, 15-speaker, surround sound system, while KEF Reference is a 2,160-watt 23-speaker system featuring 3D surround sound and space-saving Uni-Core™ technology, and the Eletre is the first vehicle to offer it. To enhance depth, precision and clarity, both systems are combined with Dolby Atmos, and the pairing of this technology together with KEF Audio is another first.
Adding Fancy Chassis Tech
What about the chassis? After all, handling is what Lotus has been all about since day one.
Like I said before, the thing weighs almost 6,000 pounds, but Lotus has some of the sharpest chassis engineers in the business, so it’s got some handling-related tricks up its sleeve, like air suspension, rear steering, anti-roll control, adaptive damping, torque vectoring, and more. Here, let Lotus talk to you about it:
The Eletre features sophisticated multi-link suspension systems front and rear, with components made from lightweight aluminium. The design of each enables effective decoupling of lateral and longitudinal loads, delivering superb ride quality together with outstanding responsiveness without one attribute compromising the other.
The innovative dual-chamber air springs, fitted as standard across the Eletre range, enable independent control of ride height and stiffness. In addition to comfort and refinement, the active air suspension also provides speed-dependent lowering of the car by up to 25mm to reduce drag and therefore improve range. It can also increase ride height by between 15mm and 25mm to enhance off-highway capability.
The electronically-controlled damping system – CDC – continuously measures the loads coming into the suspension at a rate of 1,000 times per second, and adapts the damping rate 500 times per second, for improved body control without any harshness. It means the Eletre ‘breathes’ with the road, as every Lotus should.
The Eletre is the first Lotus to use electromechanical power steering. The system has been meticulously tuned to deliver the pure, truly connected feel, feedback and intuitive response to the driver’s inputs that’s a hallmark of every Lotus and for which Eletre also sets the class benchmark. And, at only 2.5 turns lock-to-lock, the steering is sports-car quick as well. With the rack-mounted motor only consuming power on-demand, the system offers greater energy efficiency than those relying on hydraulics to provide the assistance.
The active rear-wheel-steering system makes the Eletre even more agile and is another Lotus first. The technology is offered, together with Intelligent Active Roll Control (IARC), as part of the Lotus Dynamic Handling Pack that’s fitted as standard to the Eletre R and optional on Eletre and Eletre S. Actuators mounted on the rear subframe connected to the toe control arm can rotate the rear suspension knuckle by up to 3.5º. At low speeds, the rear wheels turn in the opposite direction to the fronts, effectively reducing the wheelbase and therefore reducing the turning circle by up to 0.8 metres to enhance manoeuvrability. At high speeds, the rear wheels turn in the same direction as the fronts, improving stability.
IARC is a third-generation 48-volt system featuring powerful and fast-acting electromechanical actuators. Taking their input from the body displacement sensors, their required output torque is calculated in only two milliseconds, delivering precision control of the required roll stiffness, resulting in even more neutral cornering and improved composure. When driving on smooth, flat roads, IARC effectively decouples the anti-roll bars, benefiting ride comfort.
Managing the interaction of all of these systems is Lotus’ incredible new 6D Integrated Chassis Control (ICC) system. ICC seamlessly integrates the response of each component – together with the all-wheel drive system’s torque distribution and the active aerodynamics – to perfectly balance control and comfort in every driving scenario by continuously analysing the vehicle’s behaviour across multiple dimensions: vertical, lateral and longitudinal motion, plus pitch, roll and yaw. This technology, developed in-house by Lotus, significantly expands the Eletre’s dynamic capability and delivers an even more rewarding, engaging driving experience for the customer.
Pirelli P Zeros and six-piston front calipers help get the car to a stop, and there’s a two-speed transmission with a 13.65:1 first gear ratio and 7.16:1 second. On top of that, the battery pack is an 800 volt, 112 kWh unit that promises 10 to 80 percent charging in 20 minutes and 75 miles of added range in just five minutes thanks to 350 kW charging capability. Range is 304 and 373 miles, per the European WLTP cycle.
The hardware is impressive.
What’s It Like To Drive?
As soon as I approached the Lotus Eletre with its wacky triangular key in my pocket, the door handles popped out. I yanked the driver’s door handle, hopped in, closed the door, and buckled my belt. Then I looked up and my mind was blown. This interior is absolutely gorgeous:
It’s not just about the beautifully crafted steering wheel (with its delicately ornate switches and knurled stalks), it’s not just the insanely clear displays, it’s not just the vent that stretches horizontally across the dash, it’s not just the unique dual “humps” that make up that dash, it’s not just the thin and elegant screens ahead of the driver and passenger, it’s not just the comfortable seats or the Alcantara on the cushioned surfaces, and it’s not just how the 15.1-inch screen tips when you turn the car on to welcome you (see below).
No, it’s the quality of it all. It’s one thing for a car to look nice inside, but it’s another thing to sit in that pretty interior and ogle at the way everything fits, at the way the stitching looks, at the way the Class-A surfaces feel.
I’d just driven a Tesla Cybertruck, and to go from that into a Lotus Eletre is like alighting from a canoe and stepping aboard a superyacht. The Lotus looks, feels, smells, sounds, and probably even tastes way, way nicer.
The shifter is a little chrome toggle lever that goes up for Reverse and down for Drive, with Park a separate button on the left. It works well enough and doesn’t take up a bunch of space, though I’d prefer it on the dash or column and not there on the center tunnel; give me more storage!
As for how the car drives once you’ve moved that shifter into “D,” this screenshot should tell you everything you need to know:
Nine Hundred And Five horsepower. 905. That is absolutely insane. Zero to 62 mph goes by in 2.95 seconds. When you watch the video at the top of this article, pay attention when the camera car is behind the Lotus and the Lotus stabs the gas. The camera car, a Honda Civic, is actively trying to keep up, but by the time it does, it has no doors, for they have been blown off.
I can’t say I ever noticed any shifting between the two gears, but what I did notice is insane acceleration, a decent (if somewhat firm on this R model) ride, just moderate wind and road noise, and an interior up there with the best of them. It’s a good car to drive daily, and if you ever need to merge onto a freeway it will do so better than pretty much any SUV ever.
We didn’t get a chance to throw it around too many corners, since we were on public streets, but a bit of highway weaving at high speeds tells me this thing has some serious potential, and if I’m honest, I did walk away from the Eletre thinking: This is a performance SUV.
And that’s the point.
It’s A Great Effort, But Is It The Right Effort For Lotus?
The Lotus Eletre isn’t a “real Lotus” in the traditional sense, but you know what? No Lotus SUV would have been. SUVs are taller off the ground, bigger, and heavier, and though this Eletre is particularly heavy due to it being an EV, the electric setup also offers plenty of benefits that, you could argue, are worth the added weight to a performance SUV customer.
The vehicle is quiet; it delivers absolutely ungodly power to all four tires, shooting the vehicle from a stop sign to highway speeds in a trouser-soilingly absurd manner; it has tons of room inside thanks to the EV platform; and the low-down weight minimizes the “feel” of all that mass.
But the Eletre has three big things going against it. 1. It’s battling the “lightweight” brand image (we’ve talked about that already, so let’s move on). 2. Even though it’s insanely quick and spacious, the way it delivers its torque/accelerates isn’t really that different from other EVs (Mustang Mach-E GT, Kia EV6 GT, etc.). And 3. This thing is expensive, starting at $110,000, and people have shown they want hybrids right now.
So yes, the Eletre stands out from the crowd with its styling and interior quality, and even with much of its tech, but the way the car responds to inputs doesn’t seem that much different than other high-horsepower EV competitors. Maybe a bit of high-speed cornering would change that, though I’m not sure by how much given the car’s heft. Between that and the EV segment’s slower growth, I do wonder how much better this thing would sell were it a hybrid (which would bring the added benefit of lighter weight).
Still, as an EV SUV, the Lotus Eletre is legit: It looks cool, it feels like it’s top quality both inside and out, it’s quick, it’s comfortable, it’s smothered in advanced safety features and interior tech, and the truth is, there still is something cool about driving a Lotus.
Honestly at this stage i’d accept anything from Lotus,so long as they survive.
If this is what they are going to become, it’d have better to let the brand die with dignity.
Die hard Lotus past owner and probably future owner of something light and sketchy. Had a play in the Emeya the other day (the sedan version of this). Can confirm the interior is rolled gold. I want one very much.
It has those stupid electric door handles. So I’d argue is sucks, because of all the problems they will eventually bring
It’s possible to build an electric car without obscene weight. It’s possible to build a four seater car without obscene weight. It’s even possible to build a crossover ish car without obscene weight.
They didn’t even try on this one.
I want my Lotuses light, uncomfortable and with sketchy build quality.
This is none of the above.
Oh come on, made in China. There’s probably some sketchy build quality!
Can agree, and assure that this is the correct take here.
I dunno, the non-sketchy build quality, and comfy interior are pretty nice. But holy crap make it lighter!
Lotus has never built an SUV before but they’ve at least been wagon-adjacent enough times that I’m surprised it never happened.
Chapman’s original Mk2 and Mk4 were trialling cars, so it’s not totally inconceivable to make an offroady lotus either.
But at 2615kg, it weighs 430kg more than a model S plaid (2183kg),
or 48kg less than an entire Lotus Evora with a hummer EV battery strapped to the roof (1278kg+1289kg).
It’s obvious that Geely just wanted an electric super-SUV, and they just happened to get their hands on the lotus badge.
This weighs as much as 1.1 BMW M5s!
Sounds like a fun EV. What size tires does this dancing dragon wear? Those look like at least 22’s if not larger.
I hear ya on EV CUV’s being a bit generic. A lot of this could have been written about the Model X Plaid, for example. The difference going forward will be in the styling and tech.
Still not sure why Lotus, didn’t make their first all electric say a roadster. Something like an electirc powertrain on a Elise chassis… Hmm… I feel that someone may have done that before, so it wouldn’t be hard to do again…
“The 905 Horsepower Lotus Eletre R Weighs The Same As Three Lotus Elises”
Hey Lotus, it’s add LIGHTNESS, not LOTUSES!
I see you kept the Jalopnik tradition of fisting cars, except this time it’s not in the tail pipe
I mean, maybe if there was one.
Reading about these systems that detect if there’s a dog/kid/iguana in the car after it is parked is baffling.
If no action is taken after five minutes and the temperature inside the cabin exceeds 35ºC, an emergency call will be made to the authorities to alert them to the potential risk, the windows will be lowered and a new notification will be sent to the driver.
What it should do is just turn on the freaking air conditioning. One of the really nice things about having an EV is we can leave the dog in the car when it’s hot out, and just leave the AC running without worrying about it, no need to idle an engine. Instead of some fancy system that will call the authorities, why not have a simple software “I left my dog in the car” mode that uses the AC, and maybe even displays a big message on the interior screens of “AC running, dog is fine, don’t break windows”?
You mean the Tesla Dog Mode, which is exactly what you described, and all cars with electric AC should have.
I think alerting the authorities is the right call, but turning on the AC should be as well.
The exterior is interesting but man I hate that interior. So boring!
I don’t think anyone is actually going to buy one of these though, sorry Lotus.
This will fail. Lotus fans don’t want a 3 ton vehicle and the masses have no idea what a Lotus is. For $110k people will buy a Porsche, Audi or MB so their neighbors will know they are doing well.
Electrifying Lotus, especially an SUV Lotus, just doesn’t make sense to me.
For a company whose ethos had been to ‘add lightness’, strapping on a stupidly heavy brick and putting it on stilts just seems blasphemous.
I don’t like SUVs, but…. at the same time… the Cayenne kept Porsche alive enough to develop great sports cars like the Cayman, so I get why they did it.
I DO like, very much LOVE, the aggressively techy aerodynamics. I’m a designer, but not a trans “just make pretty sketches” designer like Adrian, but one that values function AND form together (shots fired ID > trans design lol) but I am still a gearhead, and imho ductwork is the future of automotive styling that hasn’t been tapped hard enough.
There are areas of low pressure behind the car that slow it down, but if you can steal high pressure air from the front of the vehicle, and flatten that high pressure air into high pressure sheets, and then emit it from the rear of the car, you’ll see huge benefits.
My senior thesis was all about aerodynamics for semi trailers; did you know 30% of the drag of a semi tractor is JUST the back end of the trailer? If you’ve seen those pop out fairings on the back of highway semi tractor trailers, those are reducing the drag by almost ONE THIRD.
So there’s me, a designer, but also aero geek. The i8 was a revelation… it’s like a small form, that is simple, shrouded by shields that make up the overall shape and proportions of the vehicle. The Ford GT comes out, and I am blown away by the flying buttresses, and again, it’s a small tear drop form in the front, with separate fenders that cover the rear wheels, with a thin span of material to complete the form AND guide the air.
I see a lot of things on this vehicle that are pushing the envelope in terms of that blend of design and aerodynamics, and I love it. Now apply this same philosophy to a composite sports car the size of a miata, do NOT give it big power. Give it enough battery power to be fun, but couple that with a small direct injected 60hp motor, and focus on removing mass, AND reducing drag. Give it skinny tires. Let it slide all over the place due to no traction, but let the ECUs keep the driver safe. Don’t chase lap times. Chase lightness, and slipperyness.
Anyway, that’s what I’d do.
The Bulk velomobile does that. A stagnation point air intake at the high pressure zone on the tip of the nose, a cooling duct that blows air over the cyclist inside, and vents out of the tail to add pressure where it is wanted. The result is a Cd value of 0.10, in spite of the vehicle having a 5″ ground clearance.
I like to imagine a small EV sports car that does the same. Air cooled motors/controller/batteries, with a similar form of intake. A small opening on the nose, no larger than necessary for the car to maintain top speed, cooling the battery. Small side vents to produce air curtains around the unfared front wheels while cooling air fore of the front wheels is ducted to the hub motors and disc brakes. In the back, there will be skirted rear wheels with small NACA ducts for air cooling. Have a tapered rear end where all of the air exits. All downforce will be provided by ground effects in ways that do not appreciably increase drag(no obnoxious rear wings), almost solely for the function of top speed stability, with a prominent rear diffuser in the back at the underside.
You could do a 1,000-ish lb two-seater, sized like an Ariel Atom, with a 20-ish kWh battery, a drag coefficient in the low 0.1X range, and a frontal area around 1 m^2. You’d get a 300-ish mile range doing 70 mph on the highway. Give it a 150 kW drive system or thereabouts, which might do 60 kW continuous while air-cooled(15 kW cont for each motor). Wind the motors/size the wheels/choose the battery voltage for about 160 mph top speed, and now you have a demonic little track weapon that can do 0-60 mph in about 3 seconds, has AWD, can mess with Hellcats at the drag strip, is cheap to run, stable at top speed on the Autobahn for the 20 minutes or so it can do it on a full charge, has a serviceable battery, and could be made with what amounts to ebike parts. And the battery is so small that charge time will be faster than anything currently available for sale, by default.
In enough volume, it could be priced like a BYD Seagull, but even at $50,000 it would be a performance bargain.
This is the sort of car Lotus could be building right now.
When they hiring us? lol
They probably wouldn’t, even if we had a functioning prototype. The bloated SUV has more margins.
Not speaking of Lotus in particular(they were actually a rare outlier once upon a time), but these manufacturers are only interested in maximum possible extraction of money from the public. The 100 IQ dudebros in the C-suite determine what sorts of cars get built, not the 120+ IQ engineers, and not the customers that have to pick from a field of unoptimized, bloated, uneconomical choices.
Then when the whole thing goes under, it’s government bailout time, at the expense of working people who can’t even afford these overpriced products new!
I think you’re wrong about the things it has against it, David. Well, mostly wrong. It should have been a hybrid, but all the other strikes you give it were said about the Posche Cayenne, and it basically saved Porsche from fading into irrelevance.
Will traditional Lotus buyers want this? No, but maybe enough non-Lotus fans will buy it and subsidize the traditional Lotus cars.
Wait, what exactly am I wrong about?
You said it’s too big and heavy, it’s just like other EVs in this category, and it’s too expensive and not a hybrid.
And you’re right that a traditional Lotus buyer won’t like it. But a traditional Lotus buyer is still going to buy a Lotus, just not THIS Lotus. However, somebody who WASN’T looking at Lotus before might take a look at this.
I do think it’d sell better as a hybrid, but otherwise I think we’re on the same page, actually.
To most people, Porsche is a more renown and prestigious name than Lotus, so the Cayenne made a lot more sense, plus the Cayenne could tow their Porsche race car, which this probably can’t unless the destination is fairly close by or they want to play the charger game while hauling a trailer. I don’t see this selling on looks and to the people who buy by the brand or who want to show off a badge when they pay 6-figures, Lotus has little meaning. To the people for whom it has meaning, it’s an abomination. Maybe the name will appeal to yoga instructors with outside money? I’m not sure the just-sell-an-SUV formula works for everyone and if going SUV wasn’t enough, they also went EV only at the same time, which are two big leaps to go in one shot (not to mention poor timing with EV sales in this sector slowing). Where does “real” Lotus go from here if it does sell? More of these kinds of things that aren’t Lotus mean the name technically survives, but is effectively dead in relation to what it is established to have stood for and, if it doesn’t sell, does the brand survive at all? I’d like to be wrong here.
You’re not wrong, but Lotus has to sell vehicles to survive. It’s pretty well proven that it’s not going to survive doing what it’s always done. It’s kinda down to do this and dilute the brand a bit, or don’t do it and disappear entirely.
I agree. I think they’re another brand time is passing by and they’re effectively already dead. I think this is the best move they could make, I just don’t think it’s going to work and EV only was terrible timing and probably not the best idea to begin with. There are a number of logical reasons I can think of for why they did it, but Lotus isn’t really about logic.
They should make a budget car that is fun to drive (and light), maybe a new Elise or something like that.
I mean it’s no Isuzu Bighorn Handling by Lotus
As cool as it looks unique in quantity, and would be fun to rent for a week on vaca, I’d rather have a CT4-V and a CPO Escalade for basically the same price.
It is pissing with rain, cold and dark and I just drove a three cylinder Caterham for ten miles. I am now qualified to comment. The Eletre sounds like a nice car, even a good car, It might be one of the few Lotus’ that I can fit in without having a chiropractor on call but it is not really a lotus lotus. ( I once bought a Lotus Europa, never drove it but it looked great when other people did)
Geely must have misunderstood the English to Chinese translation of “Simplify and add lightness” as “Complicate and Add”. Which to be fair to them when they bought Lotus in 2017, Google Translate was pretty terrible.
All these EVs are the same
I don’t usually get too hung up on stuff like this (Ford bastardizing the mustang name with the Mach-E, etc), but the idea that this has anything to do with Lotus (or at least what anyone into cars imagines when they think of Lotus) is just too far of a stretch. A heavy, Chinese built/designed, SUV…can’t do it.
A dog turd is still a dog turd.
No matter what “brand name” those Godless bastards choose, this is NOT a Lotus.
Well, maybe it’s like Lotus Pizza. Good Pizza is awesome but Bad Pizza is still decent.
What makes this a Lotus, vs any other brand Geely owns or could have created?
Does the Lotus image still sell cars (unclear), and even if so, does it sell cars like this (extremely unclear)?
As far as I can tell this is a Lotus badge on…some kind of go machine, I guess?
Lotus has alwasy has been pretty spartan in terms of ‘tech’ and ‘luxury’ unless you were to somehow conflate ‘tech’ with actual in depth mechanical engineering to the simplest possible form factor (as build in the UK, so operational luck may vary) and ‘luxury’ with the now rarified air of an actual mechanical driving experince and wild concepts like steering feel or driver engagement.
Sure the brand is alive, but this seems to confirm that Lotus, or at least what Lotus meant is dead. Pour out a warm pint of bitter for the homies.
I’m not even necessarily opposed to the idea of a Lotus SUV.
Existing performance SUVs are invariably luxurious and heavy; it would have been really unique and interesting to see a spartan performance vehicle with an emphasis on relative light weight in a utility form factor.
This is really just sad. Cover the badge and it could be anything from an Aston Martin to a Trumpchi.
We’re speaking the same language here, I’m not daft enough to think that a brand that aims to generate a profit by selling cars can be build on 2 door 2 seat sports machines these days.
But that doesn’t mean you can’t apply the same kind of principals to something with a much higher degree of utility be it the CUV or a Wagon or a sedan. My ideas of luxury are still a little luddite – comfortable seats, functioning automatic climate control including A/C, a nice-ish sound system with bluetooth that works.
I’m here for this. The physical description of the Lotus is quite like my Volvo XC60 PHEV, all the sensors, if I lay my dry-cleaning in the back seat, it warns me to check for pets or babies before I get out. So far, so Geely. My car feels fast to me but not like the Lotus. And the Lotus gives new meaning to speed holes I must say. My car is too wide, and too heavy, so is the Lotus. Price ratio is about 2 Volvi: 1 Lotus.
As a fan of old Lotii, I struggle to think of a car I car less about than this thing.
In Latin the nominative plural of lotus is loti. The second i instead makes this the genitive singular of the unrelated word lotium (urine) and therefore lotii means “of urine” which may not be what you intended.
Why am I not surprised that there is overlap in the Venn diagram of Lotus fans and Latin scholars?
I confess I’d be happy to find room in my garage for one of these:
https://www.c5owners.com/sinclair-c5-stories/lotus-c5-prototype-by-john-dunne
Lotus have stated that the plural of Lotus is “Lotus”.
It doesn’t stop me from using “Lotuses” though.
At some point this risks becoming Prioraiiusesodes all over again:
https://www.theautopian.com/is-the-plural-of-prius-prii-priora-or-prioraiiusesodes-comment-of-the-yesterday/
I think ridiculous pluralization of their name is especially appropriate for this ridiculous example of a Lotus.
And the pronunciation of lotii is not far off from that of ‘UTI’, so it makes sense.
Bene optime!
Given the way this is pissing on Lotus heritage I think that might actually be appropriate.