Yesterday Lotus pulled the wraps off the Eletre, which is not only its first ever attainable electric vehicle, but also its first SUV, its first all-wheel drive model and the first to be built in a new factory in China. Now owned by Geely, Lotus is looking to make a serious dent in the performance electric SUV segment with the Eletre whose outputs start at 600 horsepower.
We covered its launch yesterday, but today we’re focusing on some of the content produced by journalists invited to see the Eletre and make videos about it. Jonny Smith’s The Late Brake Show produced one of the best videos on this new and really quite important electric Lotus, talking about the vehicle with Ben Payne, the studio head at Lotus’ Tech Creative Centre responsible for its design.
Jonny asks all the important questions, focusing at first on the sheer shock of seeing a Lotus badge on something that is roughly the same size and shape as a Lamborghini Urus. But the initial shock fades when some of the cool design and engineering details are revealed, like the front end aerodynamic solution, which channels air through the fascia instead of around it.
And this notion of porosity (taking in the air and channeling it away) permeates throughout the Eletre - it even has big fully open vents that allow you to see the rear tire tread right through the bumper.
Another cool feature are pop-out LiDAR pods (three front-facing, one rear-facing) and the rear one actually fires through a cutout in the rear roof spoiler. The vehicle also has a full active rear wing that rises at speed and may also be used as an air brake.
The issue of the Eletre’s weight came up during the talk and even though it was not mentioned, it will surely be around the 2-ton mark, possibly more. However, since this has a Lotus badge, steps were of course taken to keep its weight down - the entire vehicle is made out of aluminum and carbon fiber trim is also available.
