Colin Chapman—the founding father of iconic racing automobile firm Lotus—was a type of salty automotive souls who tirelessly proselytized about weight financial savings. Recognized for now-clichéd chestnuts like, “Simplify, then add lightness,” Chapman constructed an empire of race and street automobiles underneath the Lotus nameplate that prioritized excessive lightening—typically to a fault.
I’d know. Throughout a observe occasion at Street Atlanta a number of years in the past, I drove a Lotus Exige over a seemingly innocuous rumble strip that snapped its spindly suspension arm and despatched the petite sports activities automobile spinning like a toy. Racer Jochen Rindt as soon as known as out his damaged confidence within the lightness-at-almost-any-cost ethos in a letter to Chapman, saying, “Actually, your automobiles are so fast that we’d nonetheless be aggressive with a number of further kilos used to make the weak elements stronger.” I felt the wrath of that sentiment to a T as I waited for me and my damaged Exige to get dragged off the observe and away to security.
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Embracing the EV Future
Chapman’s fame lives on among the many diehards, as does Lotus—regardless of years of near-bankruptcy and a number of ownerships. And whereas the model’s track-obsessed previous has been sustained by current gas-burning fashions just like the Evora and Emira, the long run lies squarely in a special course: electrification, particularly within the aptly named Eletre.
The motoring cognoscenti have been fast to dismiss the Eletre crossover as a blasphemous sellout that’s making Colin Chapman spin frightfully quick in his grave. They could have some extent, notably as a result of Chapman bit the mud approach again in 1982, a second in time when the gasoline disaster of the late Nineteen Seventies was all however forgotten and inside combustion dominated supreme. However what I discovered in regards to the Lotus Eletre after two days of driving in EV-friendly Norway reveals onion layers of future-forward pondering that defies Chapman’s monotone messages of the previous.
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For starters, the Lotus Eletre’s design language, whether or not you adore it or detest it, is a dramatic departure from the battery-powered herd. Flowing and futuristic, Eletre’s prolonged outdoors traces embrace the apply of what aerodynamicists name “porosity.” From six shuttered triangular panels on the entrance grille which mechanically open to let air by way of to arches and pass-through areas within the hood, wheel nicely, and different physique elements, Eletre achieves a really slippery aerodynamic drag coefficient of .26. Whereas official EPA numbers have but to be launched, Lotus’s first mass market EV (the model’s $2.3 million Evija hypercar launched in 2019 is likely one of the world’s quickest electrical automobiles) ought to recover from 310 miles of vary from a full cost of the 109 kWh lithium-ion battery powering the bottom and S fashions, which produce 603 horsepower. Whereas the Eletre R mannequin churns a mammoth 905 horsepower which might shoot it to 62 mph in underneath 3 seconds, that sizzling rod achieves much less vary than the much less {powerful} model.
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A Spark of Luxurious
Contained in the Eletre is a leather-based and Alcantara-lined cabin that feels spacious and modern, with an enormous overhead glass roof, a 15.1-inch OLED touchscreen, and discreetly recessed controls for every thing from the gear shift paddle to the local weather management toggles. There’s a sense of opulence to the mushy contact nappa leather-based and tightly stitched Alcantara, whereas the swoopy contouring of the inside panels echoes the form of the outside. Rounding out the cabin is a outstanding sounding 23 speaker, 2,160-watt sound system by KEF with Dolby Atmos encompass.
Whereas Eletre’s inside steps Lotus as much as luxurious heights the model has not seen earlier than, the true check of the model comes from behind the wheel. Spoiler alert: it’s all however unattainable to get equal steering really feel within the 5,555-pound entry fashions or the practically three-ton R model when in comparison with the featherweight Lotus sports activities automobiles of yore. However right here’s the factor: while you’re driving a completely new car that espouses a special design philosophy and purpose for being, the expertise could be so overseas it’s like studying one other language.
That mentioned, throughout frisky however not overly aggressive driving, the 603-horsepower Eletre feels strong and succesful, although not fairly as rocket-like as a number of the extra generously endowed EVs from BMW, Lucid, Mercedes-AMG, or Tesla. Clean and refined, the Eletre takes on a extra mature, planted really feel in distinction to previous sports activities automobiles which had the tendency to be skittish and fragile. Temporary time within the hyper-powerful R model at an airfield reveals vastly extra energy and a noticeable kick between gears from the 2-speed transmission, launching from freeway speeds to unlawful velocities with a palpable push.
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Whereas the spirit of the extra {powerful} R model leapfrogs right into a considerably increased stage of efficiency, I’m undecided that makes it extra Lotus. The truth is, I’m undecided both of those strains are tapping into the model’s decades-old DNA. As an alternative, what we’re seeing here’s a entire new breed of Lotus, a freak organic life type that has emerged from a primordial goop of environmentally primarily based authorities initiatives, the curious modern panorama of ultra-high-powered SUVs, and the worldwide worldview of the model’s Hangzhou-based company house owners, Geely.
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The Eletre could also be fairly a bit extra bodily strong than the delicately skinny Lotuses of the previous, which is usually a good factor if you happen to don’t like automobiles that break once they’re alleged to be getting you from A to B on a street or a observe. If a departure from the previous is the tradeoff we should make for Lotus’s survival, embracing inscrutable luxurious simply is perhaps the key sauce that ensures the way forward for this outstanding model.
