Lotus Eletre
Lotus – hardly any other brand stands for lightweight sports cars as much as this British company. Company founder Anthony Colin Bruce Chapman had a simple credo for this vehicle: “Simplify and add lightness.” Even after his death, his successors at the top of the company stuck to this. Vehicles such as the Elan, the Esprit or the Elise proved for years that such sports cars have a worldwide fan base. However, Lotus still moved closely along the precipice of bankruptcy. New developments cost a lot of money, especially if you do things differently than other manufacturers. In 1996, the Malaysian Proton Group took over the helm and gave Lotus more financial leeway. Ten years ago, DRB-HICOM, a Malaysian group, bought Proton including Lotus. Since May 24, 2017, 51 percent of the company’s shares have belonged to Geely of China.
Entry into the SUV market
This is exactly where Lotus’ corporate story begins to tip. Instead of continuing to uphold tradition and refine it using modern manufacturing techniques, Geely decided to make a shift towards the rest of the car world. As the rest of the car world was simultaneously moving towards electric mobility, it was clear also clear that the company would sooner or later abandon its focus on sports cars. With the Eletre presented yesterday, this step has now also been taken. Like Bentley, Rolls-Royce, Lamborghini and soon Ferrari, Lotus is moving into the SUV market with this model. The only difference between the Eletre and the aforementioned competitors is that it is a purely electrically powered SUV. This makes it the second new Lotus to dispense with a conventional combustion engine. The first is the Evija supercar, which will soon go into series production.
New brand orientation
Back in the early 2010s, efforts were made to position Lotus as a new competitor to Ferrari and to significantly expand the model range for this purpose. However, Dany Bahar’s plans at the time failed. Apparently, today’s managing directors have been inspired by this. In the press release, they openly talk about positioning Lotus as a global high-performance car brand. They apparently don’t see any contradiction with the intentions of the founder. But perhaps they simply hope to be able to use the energy of Colin Chapman, who is rotating in his grave, to charge the batteries. Under the internal development code Type 132, the first Lotus for four people was created – if you except the Lotus Carlton. In the styling, the designers used elements of the Evija and Emira to achieve the best possible aerodynamics. Some elements are active to adapt to the driving condition.
At least 600 hp
The Lotus Eletre’s permanent all-wheel drive system is powered by a battery pack with more than 100 kWh of capacity. For the electric motors, the data sheet specifies a base output of 600 hp. Further power variants are to follow. The range can be extended by 400 kilometers (248 miles) in 20 minutes via a 350 kW fast charging function. According to the WLTP cycle, a maximum range of up to 600 kilometers (373 miles) is possible with one battery charge. Charging is also possible at 22 kW AC charging stations. The target topspeed is 260 kph (161 mph). There are no details yet on the weight. First examples of the Eletre will be available in Europe, the UK and China from next year. The USA and other markets will follow. Lotus has already announced further premium lifestyle electric vehicles to be built alongside the Eletre in Wuhan, China. Did we already talk about traditions and values? Probably yes…
Images: Lotus Cars
