SUV is the development trend of these years, and new energy will replace fuel vehicles sooner or later, then, making an electric SUV has become the right decision to conform to the tide of the times. Lotus's first pure electric Hyper SUV, the Eletre, is a new product of this pattern. The Eletre officially debuted on the Tower of London on the evening of March 29 and, like all Lotus models, its name begins with "E", which means "new life".
However, Lotus has already released a sky-high (21.88 million) pure electric supercar called Evija earlier, and the Eletre is the second electric product, but it is the first SUV under the brand. In the early years, the wave of swarming SUVs began to spread from ordinary family car brands to top luxury supercar brands, and many of the latest models they have released now are aimed at SUVs, such as the Maserati Grecale, which was just released a few days ago, and ferrari Purengue in the spy stage.
And Lotus's performance beast is almost called the "performance SUV ceiling" Lamborghini Urus, from which you can guess what it is, whether the price will exceed one million.
Of course, even if you don't have much interest in Lotus or Eletre, after reading this article, at least you can take this out of the bar when others are bragging about Urus. By the way, according to lotus tradition, the Eletre should not have Chinese name in the future, and you can remember that it looks a lot like the word Elantra.
Ferocious supercar
As a top-of-the-line supercar SUV, the Eletre doesn't have to invest heavily in the design of the form, aesthetics and aerodynamics can be taken into account. To match its sporty setting, Eletre creates an extremely ferocious performance.
The front face uses a lot of exaggerated and radical treatment, such as a sharp front shovel, a large concave mouth, a squinting slender long lamp, etc., and the light source inside the headlight is a tight array layout, which looks very cool.
Looking at the sides you will realize that its figure is so huge, the length, width and height are 5103× 2019× 1630mm, the wheelbase is 3019mm, it is already a proper medium and large SUV, and the Urus is very close in size.
And Eletre also has a certain sneaky meaning on the roof, hidden door handles, streaming media electronic rearview mirrors, etc. These are very conducive to reducing wind resistance (0.26Cd), and the elements that are also very technological are applied to Eletre.
Another highlight on the sides is its big foot, with two-tone blade-style five-spoke rims reaching 23 inches, which is quite rare. The rim is mated to a 10-piston carbon-ceramic brake caliper, but this is currently only an option and not standard.
The Eletre is equipped with an actively adjustable rear wing, which is usually closed, while when opened, it can provide up to 116 kg of downforce, improving the overall handling of the vehicle.
There's nothing new about the through-the-line taillights, but on either side of the taillights, Lotus has added two small opening ducts, which are certainly designed for aerodynamics, but also have a cyberpunk feel.
The interiors create luxury
Theoretically, the Eletre has 7 screens, 5 digital meters + 2 streaming mirrors in the car, but it won't give you too much of a pile-up feeling because it's cleverly designed.
Only the 15.1-inch suspension OLED multimedia touch screen in the center control is more conventional, while the 12.6-inch long strip full LCD display equipped in front of the main driver and co-pilot is embedded in the center console and integrated, not prominent.
In addition, the new car also has a 29-inch AR HUD vision system, and the center of the rear is equipped with a foldable 9-inch central screen for easy entertainment for rear users.
It is worth mentioning that this is a four-seater model, and the passengers in all seats are very noble and need to be taken care of.
However, although the Eletre comes with 2 streaming mirrors, it is expected to be changed back to the conventional physical rearview mirrors due to domestic regulations that do not allow models with electronic rearview mirrors on the road.
In terms of materials and luxury equipment, in addition to genuine leather, Eletre also uses some eco-friendly materials such as man-made fibers and lightweight wool blends, which have a better touch.
In addition, Eletre is equipped with a British KEF brand sound system, the standard is the KEF Premium system, including a 1380-watt system with 15 speakers, and the ultimate pursuit of cockpit sound is also optionally upgraded KEF Reference system, including 23 speakers, with a power of 2160 watts, creating advanced technology configurations such as 3D surround sound.
In terms of driving assistance, the new car is equipped with 34 driver assistance sensors, including 4 lidar, 7 8-megapixel assist driving cameras, 6 millimeter wave radars, 4 2-megapixel surround view cameras, 12 ultrasonic radars and 1 in-car camera, the hardware is equipped with pull-ups, and in terms of software, the new car will match 2 8155 chips, but from the Geely system of Yijiatong.
20 minutes to charge 400 kilometers, 2.95 seconds to break 100
Lotus is a pure driving and known for the sports brand, to build sports cars and the world is well known, even if it comes to the SUV, its power will not be discounted, Eletre will be equipped with high-performance dual motors arranged in front of and behind the body, the dual motor system output maximum power of more than 600 horsepower, and match the two-speed gearbox, thanks to the blessing of the electronically controlled four-wheel drive system, 0-100km/h acceleration time is only 2.95 seconds, into the 2-second club, and 0-200km/h acceleration time is less than 12 seconds, It is also a very good result.
In terms of batteries, Lotus offers a 100kWh battery pack with a range of 600 km under WLTP conditions, while with a 350 kW high voltage charge, it can be charged for 20 minutes and 400 km. In terms of chassis, the new car will be equipped with an independent suspension of the front and rear five connecting rods, with 48V anti-roll rods, front and rear independent air suspension, rear wheel steering and other driving control configurations to enhance the control space of the vehicle. The performance of this chassis is tuned by lotus UK team to ensure vehicle responsiveness and vehicle linearity.
Compete for Urus, Purosangue, Cayenne
From the perspective of brand tonality, positioning price, performance characteristics, etc., Eletre's competitors will not be too many, the most direct is the Lamborghini Urus, which has been mass-produced, and Ferrari's upcoming Purosangue.
The Urus is a pure fuel coupe SUV with a 4.0T V8 twin-turbo engine, with extremely explosive performance and a maximum power of 650 horsepower. Zero hundred accelerated by 3.6 seconds, selling for nearly 3 million; and although Ferrari Purengue has not heard much about it, only knowing that there will be a hybrid V6, or hybrid V8, or even v12 self-priming version, but believe that Ferrari will not disappoint, pre-book the Eletre rival identity; as for the Cayenne, naturally it is also a potential player, it may be the highest-grossing luxury SUV, if you give it up to choose the Eletre, the reason is likely to be that you don't like your car "rotten street." ”。
Produced in Wuhan and listed next year
Although Eletre made its world debut in the Tower of London, its production base is Wuhan, China. Since Lotus was acquired by Geely Holdings in 2017 and owns a 51% stake in it, the capital consortium behind it is from China, but similar to Volvo, Lotus still enjoys a very high degree of freedom.
Eletre will be manufactured from the Wuhan Smart Factory and subsequently sold to China, the UK and Europe in 2023. It is reported that the Wuhan factory plans to produce more than 150,000 vehicles a year, of course, Eletre will not be so large-scale production.
5 pure electric products
In 2019, Lotus launched the 300-unit Evija, starting the path to pure electricity, and now the Eletre is the second model. In the future 2023-2026, Lotus will also launch a four-door coupe model (Type 133), slightly smaller than the Eletre, to compete with The Macan's SUVs (Type 134), and pure electric sports cars (Type 135), forming a smart pure electric product matrix, while maintaining the brand's sports genes, taking into account profits and funds.
summary
Although the price of Eletre was not announced at the press conference, from the perspective of comprehensive performance, ultra-high equipment, and the brand's previous pricing strategy, it should be easy to exceed the million level, which is destined to show the existence of strength, rather than volume. In China, lotus's popularity still exists only in the small circle of car fans, and it is difficult to go to the public eye. After Geely's stake, the exposure has improved, and now it is quite correct to open up the road to electrification, technically feeding back to the parent company, but also helping Geely to enhance the brand tone, and in turn, Geely Group provides sufficient financial support for mutual benefit. If from the perspective of consumers, the birth of Eletre will have epoch-making significance, and we finally have a high-performance flagship luxury SUV driven out of China.