In recent years, major supercar brands have gone crazy through SUV models, and the British veteran sports car manufacturer Lotus has naturally targeted this cake. However, compared with the fuel SUV of Porsche, Lamborghini and other brands, the first SUV launched by Lotus is actually a pure electric vehicle, which has a sense of determination to follow the fuel era Of Goodbye.
Lotus's new SUV is called ELETRE, which comes from Hungarian and translates to "new life". Moreover, the pronunciation of ELETRE is also similar to the English word "Electric" of electric, which also indicates its electric identity from the side. The Lotus ELETRE is positioned as a pure electric medium and large SUV, built using a new EPA platform, and the official said that the car is positioned as a "Hyper SUV", that is, a supercar in an SUV. Lotus ELETRE will start production at a brand new Lotus plant in Wuhan from the second half of this year and sell it to the global market in the future.
In terms of shape design, the front face design of ELETRE is very radical, and the horizontal upward contour of the net is hunched down at both ends, matching the sharp daytime running lights at the top of the front of the car to create an extremely fierce visual effect. ELETRE's near-range headlights are hidden on both sides of the blackened mesh, while the diamond-shaped grid-like active grille design below provides up to 51kg of downforce.
As can be seen from the top-down viewing angle, the hood of lotus ELETRE is also made of two grooves, and it is surrounded by the front of the car, which can further improve the aerodynamic characteristics of the front and increase the stability of the vehicle when driving.
The side of the body can be seen that the ELETRE is a typical coupe SUV style, the vehicle is very slender and low, and the window height is very low, looking like a four-door coupe. In terms of details, ELETRE has a concave curved design on the doors, hidden door handles and illuminated light strips, and electronic exterior mirrors to reduce wind resistance. However, considering that domestic regulations do not currently allow the use of electronic rearview mirrors, the future domestic sales version should be replaced by traditional optical lenses.
At the same time, the front wheel arch of the vehicle also adopts a through structure, which can channel the air flow at the front wheel backwards, increase the air flow rate, and reduce the wind resistance caused by turbulence.
As a high-performance pure electric SUV, the Lotus ELETRE features a cutting-style lightweight rim and also incorporates carbon fiber trim. In terms of tire specifications, lotus ELETRE uses oversized tires of the front 285/35 ZR23 and rear 325/30 ZR23 to ensure that the vehicle has a strong grip. In terms of braking system, the vehicle comes standard with a front 6-piston caliper and supports an optional 10-piston carbon-ceramic brake system.
In terms of size, the ELETRE as a medium and large SUV, more than 5.1 meters long, and more than 3 meters of wheelbase than similar positioning BMW iX and Tesla Model X are longer, but its body height is the lowest, which makes the vehicle look more low coupe style.
Compared to the radical front, the ELETRE's rear is more minimalist. To say that the most conspicuous design, of course, is the crisp and clean through taillight in the middle, as well as the aerodynamic hollow design on both sides, the shape is similar to Lotus's own pure electric supercar Evija.
As can be seen from other angles, the ELETRE's roof is all glass, and there is a small boomerang-style tail on the left and right of the tail, plus an electric lifting tail wing, which can provide an additional 116kg of downforce. In addition, the ELETRE's rear arches are also equipped with a through structure, which is also an aerodynamic design.
In order to achieve high-end driver assistance, Lotus ELETRE uses 4 lidars. Among them, two lidars are located on the left and right front wheel arches, one is located in the front of the roof, and the other is located in the rear of the roof, which can achieve all-round lidar coverage. But from the appearance point of view, you can't see the lidar "small horn" like Weilai and the ideal. This is because Lotus designed all 4 lidar into a hidden structure (yellow box above), only after the driver assistance system is turned on, the lidar will pop out of the hidden mechanism, and when the driving assistance is not used, it will automatically recycle the hidden, reducing the wind resistance to a certain extent.
Compared with the radical shape design, the interior of lotus ELETRE is obviously more technologically oriented. The center console has a wrap-around structure, and the steering wheel is shaped irregularly.
The front row of the vehicle has a total of 6 displays, the most conspicuous of course is the 15.1-inch ultra-narrow bezel OLED touch screen on the center console. In addition, there is a 12.6-inch slender display in front of the main driver and the co-pilot, an AR-HUD display that can project a 29-inch area in front of the driver's line of sight, and a display with electronic rearview mirrors on the left and right door panels.
Interestingly, the 15.1-inch screen on the center console also supports angle adjustment, and can even be folded upwards in the groove of the center console, so that when driving intensely, the interference of the central control screen on the driver can be minimized.
The steering wheel features two-tone panels of Alcantara and leather, and also features gold metal buttons and a gold metal paddle at the rear. However, because this is an electric vehicle, the paddle is not used to shift gears, but to adjust the strength of vehicle kinetic energy recovery.
The central area of the center console is the main control area of the vehicle, the front is the mobile phone wireless charging board, the two levers in the rear are the physical buttons that adjust the air conditioning system, and then the gear shift lever. As for the other functions, they are all integrated in the central control screen.
ELETRE's door panels are also coated with a large area of Alcantara material, and the door handles are very elegant. Of course, this luxury SUV will naturally also provide a variety of interior materials to choose from, such as large area leather, and even carbon fiber panels can be selected. In addition, Lotus ELETRE also comes standard with the Premium hi-fi system of the British premier audio brand KEF, which consists of 15 speakers and a total power of 1380 watts. If you're not shocked enough, the car can also be equipped with a more advanced KEF Reference audio, consisting of 23 speakers with a total power of 2160 watts.
Although the ELETRE is a high-performance pure electric SUV, it is still more inclined to daily driving, so the vehicle's one-piece seat shape is not the ultimate sporty orientation, and there are only sporty wings on both sides. As for the material, in addition to the conventional leather and Alcantara materials, you can also choose the perforated fabric material, which is not only skin-friendly and comfortable, but also very in line with the environmental protection concept of pure trams.
As a medium and large SUV with a length of 5.1 meters, the ELETRE adopts two independent seats in the rear row, with a fixed central armrest in the middle, and the seat supports the front and rear, the backrest angle adjustment, and even a bit of an executive-class sedan.
In front of the rear central armrest is a foldable 9-inch touchscreen that controls the rear's multimedia entertainment system, seating, air conditioning, and more. In addition, the rear of the vehicle also provides a mobile phone wireless charging board, as well as two independent cup holders, the central armrest opens inside the storage slot and charging interface.
In terms of technology configuration, in addition to the four lidars mentioned earlier, the ELETRE is equipped with 7 SMP cameras, 6 millimeter wave radars, 4 2-megapixel surround view cameras, 12 ultrasonic radars, and an in-car camera. In addition, ELETRE also uses two Qualcomm Snapdragon 8155 car machine chips to ensure the operation of the vehicle intelligent system, which is also the second model in the world to use dual 8155 chips after the ideal L9.
As an ultra-high-performance pure electric SUV, performance must be the focus of everyone's attention. Lotus ELETRE is equipped with a front and rear dual-motor four-wheel drive system, officially said that the vehicle's total power exceeds 600 horsepower, and the rear axle motor also has a two-speed transmission to improve the vehicle's high-speed performance and reduce power consumption during cruising. It is reported that ELETRE's 0-100km/h acceleration is only 2.95 seconds, 0-200km/h acceleration is less than 12 seconds, and the maximum speed can reach 260km/h. Such performance, at present, only the Tesla Model X Plaid version can be a battle. Model X Plaid is driven by three motors, 1020 hp, 0-100km/h acceleration of 2.6 seconds, and a top speed of 262km/h. If you compare the Lamborghini Urus, it is equipped with a 4.0T V8 engine, with a maximum power of 650 horsepower, 0-100 km/h acceleration of 3.6 seconds, and a top speed of 305 km/h. In terms of acceleration, the Urus is significantly weaker than the ELETRE, but thanks to the rear performance of the combustion engine and the presence of the 8AT gearbox, the Urus' extreme speed is slightly higher.
In terms of endurance and charging performance, ELETRE is equipped with a 100kWh battery pack, and the endurance can reach 600km under WLTP conditions. In addition, the vehicle supports a fast charging power of up to 350kW, which can supplement 120km endurance in 5 minutes and 400km endurance in 20 minutes of charging.
At the chassis technical level, ELETRE will use 48V electronic anti-roll bars, air suspension independently controlled by front and rear axles, and four-wheel steering system to achieve a combination of comfort and handling.
For Lotus, although the ELETRE is not their first pure electric vehicle, compared to the pure electric supercar EVija, which costs 22 million, the ELETRE as an SUV is bound to be more affordable in price, and the practicality of the SUV is also significantly stronger, obviously more interested by the rich.
At the end of last year, Lotus officially discontinued its Elise, Evora, Exige three meritorious level sports cars, their last fuel car EMIRA was also listed last year, the future Lotus will completely transform the pure electric camp, named "new" ELETRE is the new era of Lotus's pioneering work.
According to the plan, lotus ELETRE will be sold in China in September this year, considering that the guidance price of competitor BMW iX M60 is 996,900 yuan, while Lotus ELETRE has advantages in performance and endurance, and its competitors are mainly targeting ultra-luxury SUVs such as Aston Martin DBX and Lamborghini URUS. So we speculate that ELETRE will most likely be priced at more than 1.5 million, or even reach the level of 2 million.