Author: Zhu Shiyun

Editor: Qiu Kaijun

How can the track king of the oil age continue its brilliance in the intelligent electric era?

This is a proposition concerning the survival of ultra-luxury brands as well as automobile faiths.

Recently, Lotus, the world-renowned sports car and racing car manufacturer, has refocused the public’s attention on ultra-luxury tracks with a pure electric Hyper SUV named Eletre. What should million-level ultra-luxury sports cars be like in the intelligent electrification era? How can companies transform tracks? How can they participate in this electric racing about the future?

Although Lotus was not the first to submit its work, it gave an enlightening reference answer.

What a Milestone Should Look Like

Milestone – In the Lotus “Vision80” brand revival plan, it gives the positioning to the first life-use car Eletre as such.

Eletre is the core turning point for Lotus’s transformation from an electric, intelligent, and high-performance sports car brand.

Making SUVs for ultra-luxury sports car brands is not actually new. Porsche relied on Cayenne and Macan to achieve a quantitative change in global sales from tens of thousands of vehicles to 300,000 vehicles; the Urus provided “blood” for Lamborghini’s transformation into electrification; and Ferrari’s first SUV “Purosangue” (temporary) will debut at the end of this year.

However, unlike “friendly competitors” who still start from the oil age, Lotus combines sports car genes with pure electric, intelligent, and ultra-luxury organic to endow Eletre with the ability to “occupy” and “position” as a million-level SUV in the pure electric and intelligent era.

First of all, is to “paint” the look of a million-level supercar SUV.

Although the shape of electric vehicles has only been different from that of fossil fuel cars for over a decade since Tesla started the current trend, it has gradually entered aesthetic fatigue caused by homogenized appearance. As a million pure electric supercar, Eletre needs to provide new surprises.

“For high-performance car design teams, Eletre is a rare opportunity to showcase our creative thinking.” Said Peter Horbury, Senior Vice President of Design, Lotus Group.

With the front shifting of Eletre’s cockpit, super-long wheelbase, and super-short front and rear suspensions, it not only brings new spatial advantages under pure electric drive but also complements the iconic mid-engine layout of Lotus sports cars. It is full of “electric sense”.Meanwhile, Lotus has applied the Race-Aero wind tunnel and active undergrille exclusive active aerodynamic package of supercars to Eletre. Not only does it stand out from the fuel-powered car category in appearance, but it also boasts of a unique presence even in the pure electric market.

However, as a true “lightning fast” pure electric supercar SUV, the top-notch technology and convincing performance that can satisfy the public are fundamental.

As the first model to apply Lotus EPA Edge Evolution Architecture, Eletre has the advantage of a wide body and a low center of gravity. Based on this, Eletre’s full-range four-wheel drive and nearly 1000 horsepower maximum power provide excellent guarantees for the driving experience.

In the field of pure electric vehicles, Eletre’s performance is also considered to be ultra-luxurious. It is equipped with a power battery of over 100 kWh and can be recharged for 400 kilometers in just 20 minutes under the 350 kW charging condition. The maximum cruising range under the strictest WLTP standard globally can reach up to 600 kilometers.

On top of the unique appearance and supercar performance, ultra-luxurious intelligent technology sets Eletre apart from other traditional supercar brands and new car forces and opens up a blue ocean in the one-million-level market.

Eletre is embedded with a large amount of black technology throughout the whole car. It incorporates a hardware combination of four lidar, ultra-high-definition cameras, and 4D millimeter-wave radar, which is geared towards advanced intelligent driving assistance capabilities. The intelligent cockpit composed of five screens and two Qualcomm 8155 chips behind it not only has rich information and entertainment functions but also advances the human-machine interaction experience to a new level.

Adhering to Lotus’ “less is more” simplicity concept, Eletre’s UI/UX creates a lightweight, intelligent, and immersive human-machine interaction experience. In terms of lightweight, 95% of the functionality in the vehicle can be completed with three or fewer clicks. In terms of intelligence, users can customize the vehicle’s function. In terms of immersion, a highly ceremonial “theatrical moment” runs through the entire process of the owner’s use of the vehicle.

Through the three-in-one of appearance, performance, and intelligent technology, Eletre sets the first standard for the million-level SUV market in the pure electric era.As Matt Windle, the CEO of Lotus Cars, said in the recent press conference, “Eletre is a bold and revolutionary model that sets a benchmark for Lotus to enter a new segment of the automotive market and allows more users around the world to experience the extraordinary charm of Lotus. We believe that Eletre will be favored by the performance-oriented car users and bring different choices to the existing players in the market.”

Still Lotus

With such innovative breakthroughs, is Eletre still a Lotus?

This is also a question that many supercar brands are repeatedly challenged with today. Is the KNOW HOW accumulated by the century-old automotive industry and the numerous racing crowns of supercar brands a burden or a treasure in the pure electric era? Lotus has given its answer through Eletre.

Born as a supercar, Eletre can easily achieve 0-100 km/h acceleration within 3 seconds. However, unlike other pure electric models that rely on high-power motors to “stack” up acceleration, Eletre’s “breaking 3 seconds” comes from aerodynamics – the unique skill that Lotus has honed on the racetrack for 74 years.

In 1978, the Lotus Type 79 racing car with “ground effect” aerodynamic kit was born. Through its special kit design, the air passing through a narrow area between the car and the ground is accelerated to form a low-pressure zone, and the flexible “side skirts” seal the bottom of the car to produce a great downforce, “sucking” the car onto the track and greatly reducing the cornering time, thereby improving the car’s lap time.

This aerodynamic kit was so effective that 1978 became the “ground effect year” in the history of F1.

Using aerodynamics, Lotus defeated Ferrari in the F1 race. Enzo Ferrari, who originally scorned aerodynamics, praised the Lotus team for “conducting real automotive research”.

Eletre brings this technological jewel from the F1 track to everyday life.

One of the core design elements adopted by Eletre is the porosity design, which embodies Lotus’ iconic elements of sports cars. This design is based on the principles of aerodynamics and cleverly utilizes the airflow above and below the car body and inside and outside the car to improve performance.### Airflow Design

The most obvious airflow design is located at the front edge of the vehicle body and effectively guides the airflow and discharges it through two vents above the hood. Multiple airflow designs can be seen behind the front wheel arch, behind the rear wheel, and even on the top of the D-pillar.

The application of aerodynamics in Eletre is not only reflected in the vehicle body design, but also in the use of various “black technologies” to serve aerodynamic needs.

Among them, the lidars located on the top of the windshield and the front wheel arch cover will only flip out when needed, ensuring aerodynamics during daily use. The flow media cameras on the outside of the car door will replace traditional rearview mirrors when regulations allow, further reducing wind resistance.

Lower down is the Eletre infinite-speed variable active grille. When the vehicle is stationary or needs to reduce resistance during driving, it remains closed. When the motor, battery pack and braking system need to be cooled, it opens in a unique way, inhales the airflow to the radiator, and allows Eletre to “breathe”.

Thanks to the deep application of aerodynamics, Eletre, a large SUV over 5 meters long and over 2 meters high, has achieved significant downforce that only sports cars and race cars have.

At this moment, history and technology, as well as air, surround Eletre lightly. From it, we can see the accumulation of Lotus brand and technology in 74 years, and the fascinating brilliance that will be displayed in the future racetrack.

Building “Track-Level Intelligent Driving”

As a “milestone”, Eletre is not only an inheritor but also a breakthrough.

Among the many ultra-luxury brands, supercar brands often have the slowest transition to electrification and intelligence. The reason is not so much about technology and resources, but more about the “brand burden”. “How can supercar brands sustain when autonomous driving/advanced driving assistance is implemented?” is a question that has repeatedly been asked by the public.

Unlike other supercar brands that avoid intelligent driving assistance, Lotus chose to embrace technology. By combining intelligent driving assistance technology with Lotus control technology accumulation, Lotus created a “Track-Level Intelligent Driving”, a unique new era brand ICON that distinguishes itself from traditional car companies and new car-making forces.

The so-called “Track-Level Intelligent Driving”, Lotus has already given the ultimate answer–“With the assistance of Lotus intelligent driving technology, as long as you have a driver’s license, you can win the F1 champion”.

How to achieve this?

Firstly, each of Eletre’s side mirrors uses the External Rearview Mirror with Streaming Media (ERMD) technology, which incorporates three different cameras, respectively used for the side mirror, 360-degree panoramic image-assisted parking, and components that make up the intelligent driving system. The ERMD system and the mass-produced flip-able laser radar system work together to achieve racetrack-level intelligent driving.

The real “magic” lies in the software portion.

Lotus’s racetrack-level intelligent driving proposition is essentially a game algorithm that introduces game theory into intelligent driving, allowing racetrack games and competitions to be brought into daily life, which will bring more safety redundancy.

In daily life, such scenes that require games are everywhere. The most typical scene is encountering a lane merger when driving. If such a phenomenon can be prevented in advance through the precision and game of intelligent driving, it will bring a safer and more comfortable driving experience.

In addition, Lotus will also benchmark top drivers, testing their response to unexpected situations, and actively ensuring performance redundancy of software and hardware, balancing both performance and safety. As features are gradually released, Lotus will be able to plan most optimized routes and perform precise driving maneuvers just like experienced race car drivers.

Therefore, Lotus’s 74 years of racetrack intelligence is now being provided to each driver via the Eletre intelligent driving assistance system, offering a safer and more convenient driving experience, and making the racetrack the core foothold of Lotus’s new era journey.

From Lotus Sports Cars to Lotus Technologies

Can Lotus, behind Eletre, become a new leader in the electric and intelligent transformation of ultra-luxury sports car brands?

In the past 74 years, Lotus’s more widely known image was the “Lotus sports car.”Since 1958, Lotus has participated in 491 racing events, winning 7 times in the annual manufacturer championship of Formula One racing, 6 times in the annual driver championship of Formula One racing, and 81 times in the Formula One Grand Prix championship; also winning 9 group championships in the Le Mans Grand Prix, 1 championship in the Indianapolis 500 Grand Prix, and 1 championship in the World Rally Championship.

In the era of internal combustion engines, Lotus sports cars, embodying the brand philosophy of lightweight, aerodynamics, and extreme driving pleasure, became the king on the track.

Entering the era of electric power, Lotus will take aerodynamics, race-level intelligent driving, and extreme driving pleasure as a new brand vision. In this context, Lotus Technology will become the new “key figure”.

In 2018, on their 70th anniversary, Lotus released the “Vision 80” ten-year brand revitalization plan, proposing a “dual-engine” strategy between China and the UK, firmly transforming towards electrification and intelligence.

Among them, “UK” includes Lotus Cars and Lotus Engineering, responsible for research and development and landing work in the high-performance sports car business and automotive engineering technology of the Lotus brand.

Eletre is defined and controlled by the Hethel R&D team of Lotus Cars in the UK for product direction, as well as leading development work in areas such as driving performance, system integration, aerodynamic optimization, and comprehensive driving experience.

As the core of “China”, Lotus Wuhan Technology Co., Ltd. (Lotus Technology) was officially established in August 2021, announcing its future strategic plan – investing 26.3 billion yuan to fully embrace electrification. As a global intelligent technology company under the Lotus Group, Lotus Technology will integrate R&D and design organizations and global resources in China, the UK, and Germany, and will be responsible for research and production of high-end intelligent electric vehicles.

Eletre’s intelligent performance is inseparable from its Chinese team behind it.

Through Lotus Technology, the 74-year-old Lotus Group has emerged at the forefront of global intelligent electrification, experiencing the most forward-looking market trends and having the opportunity to apply cutting-edge intelligent electrification technology, just as they have led F1 technology on the racetrack for over 70 years.In Lotus’s plan, four new pure electric products will be launched by 2026. In addition to Eletre, there will also be the TYPE 133 E-Class pure electric smart four-door coupe, the TYPE 134 pure electric smart new species, and the TYPE 135 pure electric small runabout.

In the combination of historical advantages on the track and cutting-edge intelligent technology, Lotus’s new future has just begun.

This article is a translation by ChatGPT of a Chinese report from 42HOW. If you have any questions about it, please email bd@42how.com.