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Lotus describes its Eletre high performance EV crossover as 'a desirable all-new lifestyle car for our next generation of customers'. It's very different from anything you'd expect a car from this British brand to be. But the same time, satisfyingly Lotus too.
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Luxury Full Electric Cars
Background
Should Lotus be building an electric car? Or a full-EV? Well the facts are that if it doesn't, it won't survive. And the British brand has spent too much of its seventy year history barely surviving. Time for something different: time for this, the Lotus Eletre.
With this performance SUV, the British brand reinvents itself as an electric performance car maker, in the process leap-frogging rivals Ferrari and Aston Martin, both yet to take that final step. Several other uber-fast Lotus EVs are set to follow, including the Evija hypercar. It's all a far cry from the Lotus of just a few years ago, a cottage British brand hand-building lightweight little sports cars for the few that wanted them. The company's acquisition by Chinese giant Geely in 2017 changed all that. Now, Lotus is so well funded that its boss Matt Hindle has been poached from Tesla and it has a dedicated Lotus Technology Centre in Coventry 'for the creation of lifestyle cars', of which the Eletre was the first.
Impressively, instead of merely borrowing a platform from fellow Geely brands Volvo and Polestar, Lotus has created its own, the 'Electric Premium Architecture'. And manufacturing (alongside this model's similarly-engineered Emeya GT Fastback stablemate) takes place at the Geely plant in Wuhan, China which will eventually be putting out up to 50,000 examples of this car a year. A whole new world for Lotus then. Would you want to be a part of it? Read on.
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Range data
| Min | Max |
| Price | 89500 | 120000 |
| Insurance group 1-50 | 50 | 50 |
| Max Speed (mph) | 160 | 165 |
| 0-62 mph (s) | 4.5 | 2.95 |
| Electric WLTP-Rated Driving Range (miles) | 304 | 304 |
| Min | Max |
| Length (mm) | 5103 | 5103 |
| Width (mm) | 2231 | 2231 |
| Height (mm) | 1630 | 1630 |
| Boot Capacity (l) | 611 | 688 |
| Power (ps) | 603 | 905 |
Driving experience
To drive, this car obviously can't be like any kind of Lotus we've ever known before - there's 2.6-tonnes of Chinese real estate to waft around after all. But Lotus R&D Chief Gavan Kershaw and his team were given the unenviable task of trying to make it Lotus-like. Have they succeeded? Well yes and no. There's no doubt that this car struggles to hide its prodigious weight. But there's clever engineering - a three-in-one electric motor system integrating motor, controller and reducer into one package. And the steering's more feelsome than with rivals, so the Eletre inspires more confidence through the corners, where you can't help but be impressed by the astonishing grip from the combination of Dual Motor AWD, Integrated Chassis Control and Pirelli P-ZERO rubber.
You'll need that confidence too because this car is frantically fast. Even in its standard Eletre and Eletre S forms, there's 603bhp, so you'd need the fastest versions of Mercedes, Audi and BMW rivals to keep up. The 62mph sprint is dispatched in 4.5s en route to 160mph, providing you're not really interested in replicating the claimed 373 mile driving range figure. If that kind of performance is somehow not enough, then there's the top Eletre R variant, which replaces the base 450kW motor and 1-speed EV transmission set-up for an uprated Eletre 675 motor with 2-speed transmission, both of which allow for faster acceleration. The result is a wild 905bhp and 0-62mph in a flaming 2.95s on the way to 165mph (only a fraction away from the class-leadingly quick Tesla Model S Plaid). Range is claimed at 304 miles.
This R variant includes a 'Lotus Dynamic Handling Pack' (optional on the other two models) which includes an active anti-roll system, active rear-wheel steering and an extra 'Track' driving mode. The standard drive settings are 'Tour', 'Range', 'Sport', 'Individual' and 'Off Road'. These are controlled via a right hand steering wheel paddle and alter not only throttle response and steering feel but also responses from the Continuous Damping Control adaptive dampers. Suspension feel though, is always on the firm side. The drive modes also alter the ride height of the 2-Chamber air suspension, which lowers itself in 'Sport' and 'Range' (as part of the active aerodynamics) but raises in 'Off Road' (which also offers an even loftier 'Highest' setting). That, along with the standard Hill Descent Control system, might make surprisingly gnarly tracks passable, provided you were brave enough to attempt them in a six-figure luxury Lotus.
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Design and build
So much is different here. Not only the fact that this is an all-electric Lotus SUV but also the fact that this car has five doors, a big boot and, at 5.1-metres in length, is vastly bigger than anything the brand has previously made (almost the same size as a Lamborghini Urus). Yet great lengths have been gone to by Design Chief Ben Payne and his team to give the car a Lotus 'feel', primarily in the way that the compact bonnet, the short overhangs and the cab-forward stance reference the brand's previous mid-engined design layout. There are nods to Lotus cars of the present too, with sharp edges at the front and the glass canopy on top of the body, both referencing the look of the Evija hypercar. Huge wheels (up to 23-inches in size) help visually 'shrink' the silhouette. And at the rear, there's a full-width ribbon light plus a carbonfibre three-stage deployable roof-mounted spoiler. And the option of digital stalks to replace the usual door mirrors.
Inside, if anything, it's even more extreme and yes, again there is a very Lotus feel thanks to the driver-focused minimalist vibe. The small-diameter steering wheel with its regen-adjust and drive mode paddles is retro, yet futuristic. And through it, you view a slim info strip (under 30mm tall) which displays key vehicle and journeying info. Anything else you'll need is found on a 15.1-inch landscape-orientated central infotainment screen. A camera on the dash watches where you're looking and adjusts screen brightness automatically - which (if you've got the 'Side Camera' option fitted) is useful to stop the little screens at either end of the dash (the ones replacing the door mirrors) becoming distracting. The front seats are super-slim race-style items. For the rear, a three-person bench is standard and rear legroom is impressive. A four-seat layout is optional with individual rear chairs. However, this reduces boot space from the normal 688-litres to 611-litres. Not bad for a Lotus though.
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Market and model
Prices start at £89,500 for the base Eletre model, but you'll probably want to stretch at least to the mid-level Eletre S, which prices from £104,500. With both these two variants, you'll be offered the optional 'Lotus Dynamic Handling Pack' for a sharper driving feel. The top Eletre R has that as standard and costs £120,000.
Standard equipment includes wheels of at least 20-inches in size, with various 22 and 23-inch rims additionally available. You also get an augmented reality Head-up display and five drive modes that alter the car's steering, powertrain and suspension parameters. Plus there's a clever 'Electric Reverse Mirror Display' package which replaces conventional door mirrors and uses three cameras; one replacing the usual internal rear view mirror, one to contribute to a 360-degree surround view of the car and one as part of intelligent driving technologies.
As for media connectivity, there's a 15.1-inch OLED touchscreen in the centre of the dash that's fitted with Lotus's Hyper OS operating system for the driver and passengers, pre-prepared for over-the-air updates. A dedicated smartphone app, wireless 'Apple CarPlay'/'Android Auto' smartphone-mirroring and 5G data compatibility are also included. As (above base trim) is a 1,380-watt 15-speaker KEF stereo. LiDAR sensors have been placed around the bodywork which (when the full system's fitted) will allow the car to offer level four self-driving capability as soon this is allowed by legislation. 'Highway System Pack' and 'Parking Pack' options are available to widen the suite of driver assets.
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Cost of ownership
We gave you the driving range figures earlier - 304 miles for the Eletre R and 373 miles for the other two variants. This Lotus model's 'Electric Premium Architecture' 800-volt platform supports the latest ultra-rapid chargers that are springing up all over Europe: many rival premium brand EVs are still stuck on the old 400-volt system with their architecture. The 112kWh battery supports charging speeds of up to 420kW, which should enable you at a conventional rapid charger to replenish the battery from 10-80% in 20 minutes., allowing you to add 74 miles of range in just 5 minutes. At home, full AC charging from a typical 7.4kW garage wallbox would require a lengthy 17 hours - which at the electricity rates prevailing at the time of this test would set you back about £30. A public DC rapid charger would cost around £70 or more - almost as much as filling the tank of a combustion rival with petrol.
The charging port has been placed on the front wing, which means electricity coming through to the car will be as close as possible to where it's needed, which cuts down on unnecessary internal cabling and the extra weight that would bring. A five year warranty is standard in the UK. Lotus offers roadside assistance across Europe for five years after vehicle purchase.
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Summary
If Lotus as it was had somehow created a six-figure luxury electric SUV, we can't imagine it would have been much like this. But this is now a very different brand - and as you can tell by just looking at an Eletre, this is a very different kind of Lotus, developed with the kind of technology that prior to the Geely take-over, the company could only dream about.
We'd hoped that some elements of its handling would be more Lotus-like, but that was probably expecting too much from a car weighed down by such a hefty battery and saddled with such enormous hopes from its Chinese investor. Having said that though, it's a more engaging steer than any of its direct rivals, its frantically fast, interestingly designed and (unlike Lotus models of the past) is beautifully appointed and almost faultlessly built.
Enough perhaps then to draw in those who've enjoyed the idea of a Lotus from afar but never been able to justify owning one. And perhaps more importantly, to open up the way for a new kind of customer - someone who wants a cool, futuristic kind of sporting brand. Is that what this company now is? The Eletre makes a good case for it.
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