Lotus Gets Ready For An Electric Future

Lotus Gets Ready for an Electric Future 

British sports car marque Lotus is about to sell its last fossil fuel car and go electric. If they weren’t it’d be a surprise as all UK new car sales must be electric by 2030, but at least the Chinese owned car makers aren’t being resentful about it. The new electric cars are going to kick like a mule and chew up the tarmac like a decent British marque is expected to. 

E-sports Platform 

EVs have the advantage over ICE cars from a performance perspective in that they have their weight nice and low. Consequently they can accelerate harder without losing traction and with the weight low they can take corners better. 

This is much the reason that makers like Lotus and McLaren have built mid-engined ICE cars - keeping the weight in the middle achieves a lot for the physics of driving the thing. The mid-engine concept in turn is why the E-sports platform will have the batteries behind the driver and passenger seat. 

It is rumoured that the E-sports platform will be able to be tweaked to add a dual motor powertrain giving off a blistering 650kW. Could we see an EV going for 0-60 in sub 2 seconds in the near future? 

Evija - First of Lotus’s EVs 

With these challenges in mind, the first Lotus EV to come to market is the Evija, a hypercar that will show the geeks at Fremont a few things. On the E-sports platform it will have its batteries stacked behind the front seats to emulate the weight distribution of a mid-engined sports car. 

From this, Lotus expect it to be the lightest production EV sports car ever made at just 1.68 tonnes, to do 0-60 in sub 3, and to carry on accelerating to speeds of over 200mph. 

Don’t expect this to go easy on the electricity as its WLTP range is going to be 215 miles, and if you insist on driving at racetrack speeds it will be considerably less. 

It’s unlikely you’ll be able to buy one though, as only 130 will be built - in honour of its Lotus ‘model number’, 130. If you do get to buy one, the company say that you can customise it to your heart’s content. If you can afford one, you’ll hardly be on the breadline anyway! 

Other Lotus Cars Coming to Market 

The E-sports models will be built here in the UK, but its Chinese owners Geely have decided that two of the new EVs - one definitely to be an SUV - are to be built in China. Considering a fair few very decent EVs on the market today or about to go on sale are being built there this isn’t a bad thing. 

Those who lovingly remember Enzo Ferrari bemoaning the British ‘garagistes’ - small companies like Lotus who used to embarrass his marque on the racetrack - need to take heart that the best Lotus cars will still be made here in Blighty!