Lotus Unveils Its First Electric Intelligent Hyper SUV Eletre

Author | Lin Hua

Lotus, which is obsessed with aerodynamics, has made its first pure electric SUV…

On October 25th, Lotus’s first pure electric intelligent hyper SUV Eletre was released globally. Positioned as Lotus’s first pure electric intelligent Hyper SUV, Eletre was directly aimed at the global market upon its launch, and two versions will be available in mainland China: the Sport version (S+) and the Racing version (R+), priced at ¥828,000 and ¥1,028,000 respectively. The first batch of vehicles is expected to begin delivery as early as the first half of 2023.

The release of Eletre marks that Lotus, a supercar brand with a 74-year history of racing heritage originating from the UK, has taken the lead in the transformation towards electrification and intelligence, and officially opened the prelude to the era of electrification.

Lotus, a British brand with a 74-year history of heritage, is never known for pleasing its audience with large displacement engines in the eyes of many performance enthusiasts. Instead, it understands how to use the characteristics of nature to allow consumers to enjoy ultimate driving pleasure. They have an almost obsessive pursuit of lightweight and aerodynamics, pushing the Type78/79 with “ground effect” to the F1 circuit and making significant impact, thereby changing the automotive industry’s perception of aerodynamics.

Although Lotus’s heritage is deeply rooted and once shared a reputation as one of the “big three car brands in the world” with Porsche and Ferrari, today’s Lotus has fewer fresh stories to tell besides the brand’s 70-plus year history and winding changes of ownership. Even after releasing the Vision80 brand revival plan under Geely’s control, Lotus still needs to face the question “Who is Lotus?”.

When it comes to reality, the obsession engraved in Lotus’s bones has not brought it a larger audience. Coupled with the fact that SUVs have become the most popular category among consumers and the trend of brand electrification, Lotus finally realized that it had to make changes.

Therefore, in the face of a huge turning point in the brand’s history, Lotus, while drawing a conclusion to the previous journey, is also showcasing to the world in a high-profile manner that this brand with 74 years of track genes is officially entering the field of electrification.

What Can You Buy for a Million Dollars?

Although ELETRE is not Lotus’s first electric car (the first one is EVIJA), it is the first pure electric SUV under the Lotus brand, and “Eletre” in Hungarian means “rebirth.” In this sense, Eletre has a mission for the Lotus brand. Priced in the million-dollar range, what can we get?

(1) Inherited Aerodynamic Design

For a car manufacturer specializing in the development of aerodynamics, even when facing new product categories, it will exert its “core competency,” and Hyper Design is Lotus’s best answer.

A large number of straight lines and angles, coupled with the obvious application of a penetrating waistline, have made ELETRE have a flexible style, while changing people’s perception of the traditional SUV silhouette of “straight lines + angles only equal strength.”The iconic perforated design on the front engine hood, the unique triangular blade forming a matrix-style arrangement of the active variable intake grille, and the active rear wing ensure excellent aerodynamics for the car, with a drag coefficient of only 0.26Cd.

It is worth mentioning that, optimized from the perspective of aerodynamics, the air flowing through the roof deflector is guided to the area below the windshield, where it flows into the active rear wing. The wing can automatically open during high-speed driving and provide three different opening angles depending on the driving mode. The car also features an active electric rear spoiler that can generate up to 112.5 kilograms of downforce, providing stability for the vehicle during high-speed driving.

(2) Technologically-enabled Cabin

In addition to inheriting Lotus brand aerodynamics, Eletre has also excelled in the road to smart cars.

The standard 5-digit instrument cluster consists of a 12.6-inch rectangular full LCD display for both the driver and passenger, a 29-inch AR HUD visual system, a 15.1-inch floating OLED multimedia central control screen, and a 9-inch screen on the rear center armrest.

The two integrated chips in the car, with a total computing power of 2.2 GFLOPS, are the most effective guarantee for the car’s intelligence, surpassing the computing power of most vehicle systems and providing faster response and more efficient voice recognition capabilities.

In addition, the new car has the first cockpit operating system using UNREAL 3D engine real-time rendering, enabling the construction of a transcendent virtual world. The car also has a “learning” ability that can achieve self-evolution. The longer one spends with the car, the more it understands you.“`

(2) Advanced Driving Assistance System

While most manufacturers are still stuck with hardware solutions that consist of mono/tri-cameras and millimeter wave radar for ADAS, Eletre has taken a step further by utilizing four 128-line lidars, which feature expandable designs to ensure aerodynamic efficiency is not compromised.

The lidars are complemented by 12 ultrasonic radars, 2 4D imaging millimeter wave radars, 4 corner millimeter wave radars, and 2 NVIDIA Orin X 508Tops chips for enhanced ADAS capability. (Currently providing free limited-time service)

(3) Powerful Mechanical Performance

The newly released Eletre comes in two models, both of which are equipped with the high-power high-torque motor, codenamed EDS2, which is positioned in front and rear of the vehicle.

The sport version of the motor has a maximum output power of 450KW and a maximum torque of 710N·m, allowing for acceleration from 0 to 100 km/h in just 4.5 seconds. This power performance is already strong enough for a medium-to-large SUV, with a length over 5 meters.

For those seeking even faster acceleration, the racing version can deliver a time of just 2.9 seconds, which rivals the Model X three-motor all-wheel-drive Plaid version.

However, what truly sets Eletre apart is the material selection and chassis tuning, with over 70 years of Lotus’ chassis tuning accumulation.

For example, the new car is equipped with adaptive air suspension + CDC continuous damping adjustable shock absorbers to ensure driving comfort during daily use. The intelligent anti-roll control system adjusts the stability bar stiffness in real time by calculating the vehicle’s support force demand, reducing the vehicle’s roll during high-speed cornering and improving handling. The addition of the rear-wheel steering system allows for the same direction as the front wheels at low speeds and opposite direction at higher speeds, making it flexible at low speeds and stable at high speeds.

All of this is made possible by Lotus’ independently developed EPA edge evolution architecture, which enables the use of racetrack-level electric drive and intelligent driving applications in daily driving scenarios, while using the industry’s top 800V three-electric system.

In addition, in terms of energy replenishment efficiency, the car can be charged from 10% to 80% in less than 20 minutes with the support of a 420kW supercharging station, which largely addresses the problem of insufficient energy replenishment efficiency in most electric cars.

Who Will Buy Eletre?

Naming Lotus’ first pure electric SUV Eletre (meaning “newborn” in Hungarian) shows Lotus has high expectations for this vehicle. We can also see the different products it presents for the changes made to cater to the new energy era.

It is reported that Lotus is accelerating its global marketing layout and will gradually improve its marketing and service network in 10 countries including China, Britain, Germany, France, and the Netherlands this year. By the end of 2023, Lotus will build nearly 100 stores in more than 40 cities in China. Among them, the experience store in Wuhan Wanda Plaza officially opened in June this year.

Although many technological advancements make consumers envious, the starting price of RMB 828,000 is not affordable for most consumers, so it is destined for a small portion of the population to purchase it.

In these groups of people, their priority lies in accepting new things and the driving experience. Among the current electric vehicle products, only Porsche Taycan can compete with Lotus Eletre in terms of handling, although these two products are not of the same category, they share a common feature — integrating handling into their core.

However, the small rear space of Taycan inevitably makes it impossible to achieve both handling and family use, while Lotus Eletre can do both, and the 3019mm wheelbase allows the rear passengers to ride with great comfort.

At the same time, Taycan does not have many highlights in terms of assisted driving, which are absolutely the advantages of Eletre.

The second group of people is Lotus faithful followers, who have unique feelings for Lotus, and even want to include every model of Lotus in their collection.

The official launch of Eletre has brought together many advantages in the field of supercars and pure electric vehicles, undoubtedly adding another “warrior” to million-dollar supercars. But even though Eletre has many “highlights” in many aspects, the market performance of million-dollar pure electric models is still in a blank period. It still requires market and time to verify the market performance of Eletre.

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.