Autocar March 30, 2022

JUST THREE WEEKS after our first verdict on the brilliant new Lotus Emira sports car, we bring you news of another remarkable leap forward for a Norfolk firm that, until its current owners arrived, had spent much of its recent history in survival mode. It is not hyperbole to brand the Eletre (see p4) as the most radical Lotus ever made. It isn’t a sports car, supercar or even a saloon or coupé, but an SUV. Such a model from Lotus would be radical enough on its own but – bombshell number two – this is an SUV that’s electric powered. It’s a big, family-friendly SUV at over five metres long, and it’ll be built not at Hethel but in China. Ready for a lie down? Lotus enters true unknown territory with…

“Lotus said the target is a top speed of 162mph and sub-3.0sec time for the 0-62mph sprint” The Eletre begins Lotus’s reinvention as an electric performance vehicle firm offering a breadth of cars, rather than just the sports cars for which it is traditionally known. The SUV is the first of four EVs set to arrive by 2025 from the Geely-owned British brand. Until now, the Eletre was codenamed Type 132 and the subsequent electric models are currently known as Type 133, Type 134 and Type 135, the last of which is the Evija hypercar. The Eletre has almost exactly the same footprint as the Lamborghini Urus, at 5105m long, 2131mm wide and 1630mm tall, but is roomier thanks to its long wheelbase. It is therefore a large car that caters to demand in China…

2022 Evija The ultimate halo model, the Hethelbuilt Evija is a near-2000bhp hypercar. Only 170 examples will be built. 2023 Eletre Lotus’s first seriesproduction EV is an Audi E-tron-rivalling SUV with an obvious dynamic focus. 2023 Type 133 A sporty saloon. Described as large but much lower than the Eletre, it will be a direct rival to the Porsche Taycan. 2024 Type 134 This crossover, sitting between the Eletre and Type 133, is predicted to be the best-selling (and cheapest) of this medium-term line-up. 2026 Type 136 The spiritual successor to the Elise sports car is being engineered in partnership with Alpine (to replace its A110) and will be built in the UK.…

Lotus’s ability to deliver the Eletre in under three years is remarkable given the average time of six to eight years at much larger, massmanufacture car firms. You sense that has meant many sleepless nights for all involved, exacerbated by a not inconsiderable amount of pressure from the Geely owners to hit such a target – but, by Jove, they’ve done it. In that time, not only has Lotus built a design centre from scratch and the team within it to design the car, but it has also created a bespoke electric platform, rather than one poached from elsewhere in the Geely empire. Now that the Coventry design base for non-sportscar Lotuses is up and running, you would hope that the task of creating the Type 133 and Type 134 might be slightly…

What was the biggest challenge with the Eletre? “Balancing everyone’s expectations. It’s critical for the success of the brand. It must appeal to the 22-year-old hyper-rich Chinese buyer versus someone who has owned 10 Lotus sports cars. It’s a hell of a responsibility taking a heritage brand like Lotus and balancing the product so it appeals to a huge customer base.” How quickly did you turn the car around? “Six months ago, this car was unrecognisable and now it’s tooled. Traditionally, product development takes eight years. When you have a tech-laden product such as the Eletre, the tech moves fast. Our processes are now solidified. We’ve delivered one car, so it should be easier with the second and third car.” What’s the spirit of the Eletre in your mind? “It is about pushing the boundaries…

1979 Talbot Sunbeam Lotus Here was a Hethel-fettled hot hatch with a 2.2-litre twin-cam slant four sending 140bhp to the rear and a sub-tonne kerb weight – an unimaginably attractive proposition. We found it “went extraordinarily well” but felt let down by its sub-par economy, poor refinement and propensity for understeer. 1989 Lotus Elan (M100) A dalliance with front-wheel drive for Lotus’s would-be Mazda MX-5 killer. It never matched the sales of its rival, but we still reckoned “you should sell your grandmother” to own one and labelled it a worthy bearer of the hallowed Elan name. 1990 Vauxhall Lotus Carlton Never before and perhaps never again will a car attract quite so much attention from outside the car world as did the Lotus Carlton. It was the ultimate Q car: a Vauxhall saloon with…