Lotus: Now there is also a lifestyle SUV 🎥
CHANGE OF DIRECTION With the new, all-electric Eletre lifestyle SUV, the English-Chinese sports car manufacturer Lotus is realigning itself. A challenge for fans of the tradition-steeped brand?
After Porsche, Maserati, Lamborghini and Aston Martin, the two super-sporty manufacturers Ferrari and Lotus now also want to swim along on the SUV wave.
The English do this with the Eletre model, which they call a hyper SUV themselves and which is supposed to play in the top league of electric sports cars.
Little weight and compact dimensions
Previously known under the project name T132, the new model comes with several brand firsts. Not only the body type SUV with five doors, but also the all-wheel drive and the fact that the car is manufactured in China, must first be digested by die-hard Lotus lovers.
Even the original development goals of the house, low weight and compact dimensions, are to be reassessed. After all, the new car is 5.10 meters long and the wheelbase is 3.02 meters. Even though almost everything has changed, the traditional initial letter for Lotus models has remained: E for Electre.
Different, but still 260 km/h fast
However, it goes without saying that Lotus also delivers plenty of drive power in the new, extremely unconventional model to ensure the performance demanded by the fans.
The 800-volt electric base ensures a 100-kW battery for a range of up to 600 kilometers. At least 445 kW of system power ("a good 600 hp") guarantee outstanding driving performance. The 100-km/h mark is to be reached in less than three seconds, and the manufacturer quotes 260 km/h as the top speed.
Technically, the car was prepared jointly by the development centers in Hethel, England, in Wuha, China, and in Raunheim, Germany. Production will start a little later this year at a newly built factory in Wuhan.
