This is the Lotus Eletre – A 600 hp electric super SUV

March 30, 2022

Geely

Lotus has been owned by the Chinese Geely since 2017 – which also includes brands such as Volvo and Polestar. The Chinese obviously didn’t buy the British sports car maker – they have a majority stake – to please a few enthusiasts of lightweight sports cars like the Elise with another small two-seater. No, cars have to be sold and preferably as many as possible. How do you do that in 2022? Simple, you build an SUV.

Lotus Eletre

Lotus has pulled the curtain on its first SUV: the Eletre. In case you were wondering, Eletre means “come to life” in Hungarian and you pronounce it as Eletra . Incidentally, it is not the first fully electric car that Lotus has unveiled, because in 2019 we were already introduced to an electric hypercar and – according to Lotus – the most powerful production car in the world: the Evija .

Large SUV

The Eletre is 5.10 meters long, 2.13 meters wide and has a large wheelbase of 3.02 meters. He is not very high, only 1.63 meters. It is by far the largest Lotus ever and therefore also the most practical. Passengers in the second row have up to ten times more legroom than in the Lotus Evora . The luggage compartment measures 400 litres, which is a lot for a Lotus, but not much for a large SUV. They find legroom much more important in the country where parent company Geely comes from. Fortunately, you can also lose some stuff in the front, because the ‘frunk’ holds 77 liters.

lightness

Lotus founder Colin Chapman once said, “Simplify, then add lightness”. The tile where this wisdom was written and hung on the wall in the design department has clearly ended up in the trash. Although the automaker does not reveal the weight, the Eletre will certainly touch 2,000 kilograms or more on the scales. That’s heavy for a Lotus, but not for an electric SUV of this size. Extensive use has therefore been made of carbon fiber and aluminum to keep the weight low.

The range of the Lotus Eletre

The Eletre is built on the Electric Premium Architecture platform, which will also form the basis for the other three EVs that the manufacturer has announced and plans to launch around 2025. The battery pack has a capacity of 100 kWh, which means that a driving range of about 600 kilometers should be feasible. The Eletre can be charged very quickly, thanks to the use of 800-volt technology. With the right charger you can quickly charge with 350 kW, so that in 20 minutes about 400 kilometers of range is added to the battery pack. AC charging is possible up to 22 kW.

Lotus feeling

Two electric motors provide the drive, with a motor on the front and rear axle. According to Lotus, a sprint from 0 to 100 km/h is completed in two to three seconds at the most. The top speed is 260 km/h. Active stabilizers, rear-axle steering, torque vectoring and air suspension with continuously variable damping should provide the old-fashioned Lotus feeling behind the wheel.

Lotus will announce the prices later. In England he will probably get a price tag of 100,000 pounds (120,000 euros). Production takes place in Wuhan in China. The first copies will hit the road in 2023.