The Lotus Eletre Isn’t Like Any Other Lotus
I’m sure you clicked on this link armed with a confetti cannon of criticisms and questions ready to be fired in the direction of anyone mentioning a Lotus SUV. You’re wondering about its weight, steering feel, and other qualities synonymous with the little British company’s little British cars. Your responses will range from curious to curses, with at least one of you speculating on the feelings of Lotus’ long-deceased founder Colin Chapman. The largest question among my peers and no doubt you readers: “Does it feel like a Lotus?” After two days, I think the answer is no, but that isn’t Lotus’ fault.
What struck me most at the Lotus Eletre press launch was the company’s ambitions. They mentioned some surprising numbers that caused my eyebrows to meet my hairline.
150,000: The number of cars Lotus wants sell in 2028
1,700: The number they sold in 2022
44: Total Lotus service centers in North America
2024: The year the Eletre will be delivered to customers
Ambitious.
Lotus has already begun to expand its dealership network to service all these new cars. That will be no easy feat, as first-attempt EVs often involve plenty of recalls and service bulletins, and the Eletre is as all-new as they come. Its powertrain, chassis, over-the-air-update system, and deployable radar system (Lotus says this “future proofs” it for Level 4 autonomy but provided no road map as to when that will be available. are all new. While it was designed in the U.K. at the Geely Design Studio in Coventry, the engineering and development was done in Germany and it will be assembled at the Lotus plant in Wuhan, China; Firsts for Lotus, obviously. Lotus has never made a 5-door car, a car with all-wheel drive, or fitted one with electric power steering, or made an EV bearing their name, and now it’s taking all of those leaps at once.
Those leaps all come thanks to a $2B investment into Lotus by Geely, a Chinese conglomerate that began life in 1986 as a refrigerator manufacturer. Geely quickly transitioned to making motorcycles and—in the early Aughts—cars. The Geely Automotive Group Division now includes 10 companies, of which Volvo and Polestar are the most known among Western audiences. Without this infusion of cash, it’s unlikely that Lotus’ trifling sales could have kept the company afloat for long in a world increasingly drawn to crossovers and emissions regulations, both of which put the sports car market as we know it at risk.
Hence, the Eletre, a five-door EV. Unlike Lotus’ previous cars it is neither light nor small. The 5700-lb Eletre could wear a Lamborghini Urus’ jacket nearly perfectly, so close in dimension are the two. On the powertrain front, both the Eletre and Eletre S have a 105-kWh battery pack feeding a 225-kw Permanent Magnet Synchronous motor at each axle producing a total of 441 kW (591 hp). Range is estimated at 373 miles. A 350-kW DC fast charger juices the Eletre from 10-80% in 20 minutes, thanks to its 800-volt architecture. Air suspension comes standard, while rear steer and active anti-roll are optional.
None of that sounds much like what you’d expect from a Lotus sports car. And the Eletre hardly looks like an Emira. Black is used at the top and bottom of the car in an effort to hide the vehicle’s size, but it’s not as effective as it is on the Mach-E. Transforming a sports car’s design into an SUV can’t be easy and I mean no disrespect to those given the task. Porsche does it right today but certainly had a few awkward years. However, unlike the Cayenne or even the Urus, I find it hard to even see the relation between the Eletre and its alluring siblings, the Emira and Evija.
However, the design is extremely functional. The Eletre’s drag coefficient is just.26, significantly lower than the Rivian R1S’ (.30), though still two one hundredths behind the Tesla Model X. Lotus accomplishes this in part thanks to its porous design. Walk around the car and you’ll see slats in the hood and portholes at the rear which let air pass through the car rather than over or around it. The lower grill hides electronically-actuated polygonal vents that open or close depending on cooling needs. There’s wings—both fixed and deployable—at the back which straighten the air and provide a little downforce, though they wouldn’t tell us exactly how much.
Open the door and you will see the most luxurious and well-appointed Lotus interior ever, and one that’s competitive among its peers. A sea of Re-Fiber (Lotus’ own premium fabric that’s made from fashion fabric waste) and Alcantara cover the doors, seats, arm rest, and steering wheel. I’m not sure I’d subject such a velvety environment to six months of shuttling children, but the first impression was a good one. Napa Leather is also available. The seats are supportive and comfortable and there’s plenty of legroom for every occupant. Visibility is fine. After 8 hours spread across two days I can say that the Eletre’s interior is a very comfortable and quiet place to be. That is unless you turn up the 23-speaker KEF Dolby Atmos stereo, which is the best automotive audio experience I’ve had to date. If it’s possible to play movies in the car (while parked), do it. Loud? Yes, but how else can we test the soundness of the interior’s construction? There wasn’t a buzz or rattle, no matter the volume. Audiophiles will enjoy it unless they want to tune the EQ themselves, because there’s no way to do that.
A 15.1-inch OLED screen dominates the center and it’s where most things get done, and thankfully some physical toggles remain to adjust the temperature. I appreciate the presence of a small screen behind the steering wheel which provides the driver with essential information like speed, the speed limit, and cruise control (there’s a HUD as well, though it lacked turn-by-turn). The front passenger gets a screen as well (a trend I hope ends soon) which can be used to change music tracks. I’m not sure why you would, since it’s further away than the main screen.
Lotus was very proud of its new operating system, the Lotus Hyper OS. I’d be proud too if my previous cars used head units bought at a marina swap meet. The new system is fast, crisp looking, and laid out well. Most importantly, it appears and functions at the level of its German competitors, and that is very impressive. Demerits? No volume knob. Adjusting the decibels is done with chunky buttons on the steering wheel or using a drop-down menu on the main screen. If you won’t give us a knob, at least give that digital slider a permanent home on the screen. Other issues: at the wrong time of day the stylish piece of aluminum that spans the dash bounces sunlight into your eyes, and you could see the reflection of our gray dashboard’s reflection in the windshield. Opt for black.
Testing the driving dynamics was challenging. Norway is a natural environment for an EV press launch; 79 percent of new cars sold in 2022 were fully electric, thanks to aggressive tax incentives, subsidies, and investments in infrastructure. However, Norwegians obey speed limits with the strictness you would obey the sign, “Put on parachute before jumping out of plane.” Thankfully, we were able to test the car’s handling characteristics later in the day at a closed airfield.
On the road I was able to determine that the air ride suspension is comfortable and composed over the country’s perfect tarmac. By all measures this is a very comfortable vessel in which to get around.
However there are two disappointments: First, the car will not come to a stop without using the brake pedal, no matter how aggressively you set the regenerative braking. Lotus said they made this decision after researching the market and learning most people don’t like one-pedal driving. In my opinion, if you’re going to make the regen adjustable anyway, let the driver choose. Second, launching from a stop—even in Sport mode—is surprisingly underwhelming. I was driving the Eletre S, which takes 4.5 seconds to reach 60MPH. It isn’t slow but the 0-20 is undramatic in a way that is unlike any other performance EV I’ve driven, especially considering Lotus refers to the car as “the world’s first all-electric Hyper SUV.”
If you want to keep up with a Rivian or Tesla you’ll need the 900-hp Eletre R, which is the quickest EV crossover at the time of this writing. It has the same 225-kw front motor as the lower Eletres but the rear motor is a 450kW unit mated with a 2-speed transmission, similar to the Porsche Taycan. Lotus let us test the R on a closed runway. One half of the runway had been turned into a medium-speed autocross, the other a drag strip of sorts. The autocross was a twisting out-and-back course with a sweeper at the far end. The SUV felt sticky and neutral, the steering acceptable in weight and speed though fairly devoid of tire feel.
Then I went to the drag strip and performed two runs from 0 to around 85 mph. I performed the first in Sport mode and the second in Track. Track mode gave me the kick in the back I expected, not surprising given Lotus claims a 0-60 time of around 3 seconds. The unsettling part was— as the speed climbed higher—the car zig-zagged slightly, as if the motors were discussing which side should get the power.
All told, considering this is a first effort I think it’s an immense success. Technologically, with the exception of the Evija, this makes every previous Lotus look as advanced as broom. You can even use an app to pull into tight spaces while you stand outside the vehicle. The quality and functionality were very good and most of my complaints could be addressed with a future OTA update. Geely’s experience shows and it has helped Lotus’ boldest step ever be a fairly stable one.
“Does it feel like a Lotus?” Not by the existing definition, no, but how could it? Lotus’s reputation was built on the shoulders of light cars. Driver feedback was abundant while comfort and features were simply present. We love them but very few of us bought them. Selling 1700 cars annually won’t be enough, unless Lotus adds a zero to its prices. The only other solution is volume.
I think this identity question will eventually be asked of every sports car brand. It will be hard to answer because EV propulsion feels relatively the same regardless of which badge is on the hood. Some cars are faster than others, but there’s no authentic variation in the sounds of the powertrains as there is with ICE powertrains. Close your eyes and you can’t always tell one from the other.
Will an electric Cayenne feel different than an electric Urus or an electric Mustang? Not as much as their gas equivalents do today. Separation between the cars will shrink. The defining factors will be steering, style, ergonomics, and interior design. Lotus is just the canary in the coal mine.
Setting aside the impossible task of asking an EV SUV to feel like an Exige, we have to accept the business case: the world wants crossovers. Is the Eletre a good one? Yes. But its real value to enthusiasts is funding the sports car efforts of its parent company, as the Cayenne does for Porsche. Let’s hope it’s enough to keep the lights on in Coventry for a good while longer.
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