Lotus dives into the electric car market with Evija and Eletre

In the splendid setting of Garage Italia, a restaurant-workshop located in Milan a few steps from the old Alfa Romeo headquarters, Lotus has unveiled the first battery-powered solutions designed by the English brand now owned by the Chinese. For the uninitiated, in fact, for just over 5 years Geely has owned Lotus Cars together with other prestigious European brands such as Volvo.

With the departure of the latest and historic endothermic supercars, Lotus dives into the electric segment, leaving only the Emira, a small supercar destined to replace the Exige, available on the list. Unlike the latter, Emira boasts two engines shared directly by Toyota and Mercedes-AMG; while the first can count on a 400 horsepower 3.5-liter V6 engine, the same on board the Toyota Supra, the second is the 2.0 4-cylinder 350 horsepower installed on the A-Class AMG. Both thrusters provide, however, enough cavalry and thrust to make Emira an extremely promising solution from all points of view. For the European market, at present, it is available exclusively with the motorization of the Rising Sun at a price of just under 90 thousand euros.

Eletre

Lotus Eletre is in fact a sporty SUV, capable of unleashing a maximum power of 900 horsepower with a searing 3-second sprint in 0-100 km / h. The battery is 100+ kWh, while the autonomy in the WLTP cycle is 600 km; the size of the battery shouldn't scare you as Elentre also accepts 800 Volt recharges, which should guarantee short dwell times. 510 cm long, 223 wide, 163 high, with a wheelbase of 302 cm, the Lotus Eletre has a 400-liter trunk, in addition to approximately 80 liters at the front. Designed in the UK, the Eletre features an impressive yet extremely aerodynamic body. The front is inspired by the Evija, while the rear is brand new. Numerous innovations in the technological field, from the on-board ADAS (Level 4) to the rear-view mirrors, replaced by cameras that act as digital mirrors. | ); }

Inside the Lotus Eletre there are four or five people (depending on the configuration) and the passenger compartment is decidedly devoted to luxury, with quality materials and an extremely immersive KEF audio system with 23 speakers . Regardless of your opinion on the electric SUV, Lotus has now released the configurator that allows you to customize it to your liking. The customization options are numerous, from the exterior to, of course, the interior. There is no shortage of the most fanciful details such as brake calipers and alloy wheels. We have imagined it like this, but at this address you can find the official configurator. For the more interested, Eletre should have a list price close to € 120,000, and will be available in the UK, China and Europe in 2023.

What is our point of view on Eletre? In our opinion it is not surprising that Lotus, like Lamborghini, Porsche and now Ferrari, has also decided to test the terrain of sporty SUVs. After all, data in hand, both Lamborghini and Porsche managed to achieve excellent sales volumes, exceeding all expectations. Now with Purosangue Ferrari is also aiming to replicate the interest and Lotus could follow the trend. Of course, one wonders who might want an electric sports SUV, but at the moment it is difficult to fully understand the market and it is therefore necessary to pay attention to the first months of sales.

Evija

Defined as “the most premium sustainable car in the world” during the past International Design Award, winning the Product Design of the Year category, Lotus Evija is an electric hypercar from very high range. Evija boasts a combined power of 2,000 horsepower, a high figure also for the electric sector; on this model there are in fact four electric thrusters installed on each wheel so as to give a constant thrust in every context.


Made of carbon fiber, the bodywork aims to reduce weight in as many areas as possible, a necessary factor due to the car's heavy batteries, which contrast with Colin Chapman's original philosophy of "simplifying, then add lightness ”. However, although it is not light by the standards we are most accustomed to, the scale needle on the Evija stops at 1,678 kg: a very respectable value.

To have Evija in your garage you need to spend a significant amount: although there is nothing official at the moment, rumors suggest that the price in the Old Continent could be around 2 million euros, thus aligning itself with the endothermic solutions from Pagani and Ferrari. Also for Evija, Lotus has made available an interesting configurator that allows you to customize every single detail; if you are curious, at this address you can indulge yourself with the choices and arrangements.