Power is Nothing without Control.

This is a well-known truth in the world of racing and high-performance cars. It’s so important that a well-known tire brand and official F1 tire supplier uses this phrase as their own branding slogan.

In the past, power was the decisive threshold for car performance. But as cars entered the electric era, super power became easily accessible, and high-performance cars seem to be everywhere overnight. Power levels that would have been legendary in the era of gasoline cars can now easily be achieved with an electric motor, at only a fraction of the price.

4 seconds to reach one hundred kilometers per hour, 3 seconds even more easily. More and more electric cars hit the market with the word “performance” added to their name. Words like high-performance and supercar seem to have lost their difficulty, and anyone can easily create their own high-performance car or supercar with the cheap horsepower advantage of an electric motor.

Only true performance players and enthusiasts know that things are not so simple.

Even with a Force of a Thousand Pounds, One Must Be Able to Control It

One electric supercar after another has already become common, and electric sedans and SUVs are increasingly emphasizing performance. However, the power “dividend” of an electric motor comes with a cost and requirement. Compared to internal combustion engines, electric cars require stronger handling performance to fully and safely release the greater torque output. The generally heavier weight of an electric car also places higher demands on chassis performance.In the world of racing, Lotus is a name that cannot be avoided when discussing the evolution of handling performance. In the history of the F1 World Championship, it was the British racing teams, led by Lotus, that relied on the handling performance of their chassis, and at times were able to dethrone Ferrari, which had always believed in the absolute advantage of its engines.

Lotus founder Colin Chapman was known as a master of chassis and the Lotus F1 team that he led was the first to adopt a mid-rear configuration, the first to use aluminum monocoque structure, the first to adopt a torsion bar spring and an integrated brake, and the first to introduce electronic active suspension…

In the field of civilian cars, many of the classic car models that we are familiar with have Lotus Engineering behind them, especially in their development process, particularly in terms of chassis handling: from the DMC-12 in “Back to the Future” to the Nissan GT-R, from the Aston Martin DB9 to the first-generation Tesla Roadster…

In the era of electrification, the internal combustion engine, which had already become “class-fixed”, suddenly became outdated, and everyone returned to the starting line. The huge horsepower and torque instantly released by the electric motor, combined with the heavy weight of the electric car itself, have raised higher demands on the handling of the vehicle, and the suspension system is exactly what Lotus excels at.

As Lotus’ first mass-produced pure electric SUV, Eletre can be said to be the first electric SUV that truly deserves the prefix “supercar”. The dual permanent magnet synchronous motors in the front and rear, which have a total power of 603hp (S+ version) or 905hp (R+ version), give Eletre a powerful acceleration performance, with a 0-100 km/h acceleration time of 4.5s/2.95s (S+/R+) respectively.

However, astonishing power figures are just the beginning when it comes to true “high performance.” In addition to exceptional power, what sets the Eletre apart from other high-horsepower EVs on the market is Lotus’s decades of expertise in chassis and handling.

Amid the surge in power performance, Lotus has used a series of suspension innovations to enable every horsepower to be released in a controlled manner on the road, which is precisely what makes it the company’s expertise. To tame and control the violent power of the nearly 1,000 horsepower Eletre, Lotus uses aluminum multi-link suspension, and all models come standard with adaptive air springs and CDC continuous damping adjustable shock absorbers.

The Eletre’s air suspension system features a dual-chamber design that achieves independent control of spring height and stiffness by decoupling them using open-and-closed dual-chamber valve gates. Simultaneously, the CDC shock absorber can detect wheel status in real-time during travel, increasing stiffness in an instant to improve support or reducing stiffness to ensure comfort.

Traditional fixed anti-roll bars have been replaced by Lotus’s intelligent anti-roll control system. Using data from sensors, the latest 48V active stabilizer bars can calculate the required torque within 2ms and quickly adjust to the corresponding stiffness. The active rear-wheel steering system is also standard across the range, with the steering motor precisely controlling the rear wheels, improving stability at high speeds and agility at low speeds.Lotus has designed and equipped the Lotus Intelligent Dynamic Control System for Eletre, incorporating a range of powerful chassis hardware systems. By precisely allocating the intervention status of the six-degree-of-freedom chassis system, power system and even the aerodynamic package, it maximizes the powerful performance of the high-spec hardware configuration.

With the blessing of Lotus’ orthodox racecourse genes and the all-round high-spec chassis software and hardware, Eletre’s powerful 905hp power can be fully utilized, clearly distinguishing itself from many “data addicts” who only have brute force but lack control. With the power to hold a thousand pounds yet able to be handled freely, this is the true essence of high-performance.

As a master of handling, Lotus naturally became the leader in the field of aerodynamics. In the late 1960s, Formula One teams realized that the handling performance provided only by the chassis tires was difficult to cope with the rapidly expanding horsepower and speeds of new race cars. Therefore, once again, Colin Chapman and his Lotus team were the first to install a fixed wind deflector on the Lotus Type 49B racing car, which became the precursor to the F1 tail wing until today.

As a master of handling, Lotus naturally became the leader in the field of aerodynamics. Lotus not only pioneered the introduction of fixed wind deflectors to F1, but the Lotus Type 72 in 1970 also pioneered the design of front-deflected wind deflectors, rear-high-positioned wind deflectors, and side-box-cooled intakes, which laid the foundation for the basic layout still used in F1 cars today.

The Lotus Type 78 of 1977 was a famous ground effect racing car, in which Colin Chapman ingeniously set up an airflow channel under the car, and used ground effect to generate extremely strong downforce. The following year, the improved Lotus Type 79 won the annual championship, leading to the FIA’s decision to quickly ban the use of ground effect designs.

The control of a vehicle is not a mystery. The key is to keep all four wheels as close to the ground as possible. As early as half a century ago, Lotus discovered that the use of the energy of air can increase the downforce of a high-speed vehicle.

The era of electric vehicles has provided a rare opportunity for aerodynamic design because the internal combustion engine no longer occupies a large space inside the vehicle. As a result, electric vehicles can arrange airflow channels inside and outside the body more freely, realizing lofty design concepts.

Lotus’ first limited edition all-electric supercar Evija applied this idea by designing a huge Venturi effect airflow duct in the rear body, without the constraint of a mid-engine in a fuel-powered supercar. At a speed of 320 km/h, the Evija can generate an incredible downforce that approaches its own weight.

As a five-seat pure electric SUV with a Lotus emblem and designed by Lotus engineers and designers, Eletre must have an aerodynamic kit up to the teeth, boasting high-performance in supercar classification. Eletre is the most complicated SUV model in terms of aerodynamic design so far.

At the bottom of the front of the car is the active intake grille. The multi-blade linkage design opens like a lotus petal, which helps to increase the vehicle’s cooling capacity when opened, and reduces drag and increases 15km range and 22.5kg downforce when closed. The unique hinge guidance design allows it to be opened and closed freely below 190 km/h.At the front hood, below the headlights, side fender flares, D-pillars, rear bumper and other parts, Eletre continues the porous design concept of the supercar Evija, with 7 sets of through-race-aero duct designs. Through clever aerodynamic modeling, the airflow during high-speed driving smoothly and with low resistance passes through the body, reducing resistance and minimizing lift.

The tail wing has always been an important element for civilian vehicles to highlight their racetrack pedigree. The complexity of Lotus Eletre’s tail wing design is to have true performance capabilities, rather than just visual decoration.

The modular style of the aerodynamic spoiler is mounted on the upper edge of the rear window, which can reduce the vacuum area formed by the turbulence of the rear of the vehicle, reducing the drag and lift caused by the vehicle’s aerodynamics. Precision-calculated angles, aided by the Coanda effect, guide the airflow down to the active spoiler beneath the rear windshield, producing 8kg of downforce.

The active spoiler system at the end has four angle adjustments. At 18°, it provides the lowest wind resistance and reduces the drag coefficient by 1.8%. At 32°, it provides optimal downforce, generating up to 112.5kg of downforce. At 34°, it provides the best air braking effect, improving the deceleration effect during full brake.

With exquisite aerodynamic design throughout the vehicle, Eletre achieves a wind resistance coefficient as low as 0.26 and a maximum net downforce of 90kg, balancing both low resistance and downforce.This is particularly important for electric vehicles, as sacrificing downforce to improve range may result in instability during high-speed driving. However, by virtue of its “ancestral” aerodynamic prowess, Lotus has endowed the Eletre with a clever and efficient aerodynamic design that unexpectedly resolves this contradiction.

Conclusion

As we enter the new era of digitization and intelligentization, the definition of performance is also expanding and extending. Lotus has truly endowed the Eletre with ultimate supercar performance, as well as “super” intelligent capabilities.

The first-to-market four-laser radar sets a new industry benchmark, featuring a foldable laser radar design that not only continues the low-drag aerodynamic design but also pays homage to the iconic flip-headlights of Lotus classic cars. With its powerful 360-degree perception capability and dual NVIDIA Orin-X high computational power chips, high-performance vehicles now have cutting-edge intelligent driving experiences.

In the past, when people talked about the performance king in electric SUVs, they may have thought of Tesla or NIO. They do have impressive performance data, but straight-line acceleration is only half of the “high-performance” standard. The appearance of the Lotus Eletre makes people realize that only by adding exceptional handling can an SUV be called a “supercar-level” SUV.

This may be the definition of supercar-level performance in the electric era: extreme power is a prerequisite, and extreme handling is needed to perfect control it. To achieve what Lotus Eletre offers, genuine skills are required to upgrade to a high-performance supercar SUV.

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.