Can it still make your blood boil?

The development of electric vehicles in recent years has far exceeded everyone's imagination, but there is no doubt that many people, especially fans, still have a complex for fuel vehicles, especially for those high-performance sports cars. After all, in the depths of our memory, those are "flesh and blood" beings, and even spiritual totems.

So many people still think that electric vehicles have no soul. But the "soul" is attached to the body, so I have always believed that whether a car has a soul depends only on whether it can hold on to and inherit the unique DNA that history has given them.

A few days ago Lotus Lotus released its first pure electric SUV Eletre. Don't get me wrong, it's not Lotus's first pure electric car, but it's the first four-door model in the history of the Lotus brand. The most "deviant" thing is that it is an SUV.

Many fans overnight have the same question: Will this Eletre, known as the Hyper SUV, still be the Lotus that we remember?

It's a really interesting topic, so I wanted to pick the main points and talk to you about this Eletre. Before we start talking, let me throw a question: Do you know what lotus is the most "will"?

Don't sell guanzi anymore. In my relatively limited understanding, aerodynamics, extreme lightweight, and the creation of high performance and driving pleasure based on the previous two points are the meaning of Lotus.

Back to this Eletre. Not only did Lotus continue the tradition of naming the word "E", but he also cleverly made the name pronounced very similar to the English word "electric", which is really well-intentioned.

It can be said that when I saw Eletre on the screen, I was really amazed. But what caught my attention the most was the "porosity" that spread throughout the body. Its eye-catching degree is even more impressive than that of Evija in the same door.

For the average family car, those so-called spoiler designs are mostly just visual needs. But for Lotus, the obsession and obsession with aerodynamics is integrated into the bone marrow.

This design, which Lotus calls a "porous" design, can be traced back to the bodies of Evija and Emira. The core idea is to let the air not simply flow through the surface of the car, but to allow the air flow through all parts of the body, and to put all parts of the body in the air flow to achieve better aerodynamic performance.

From a driving point of view, the porosity design can also reduce the resistance encountered by the car body to cut through the air, effectively improving the endurance and high-speed performance.

Moreover, part of the air flow through the body is also directed into the car body, which can dissipate heat for the high-power high-performance motor, battery pack and braking system in front and rear.

This design, known as the "Carved by Air," is rare even on other mass-produced supercars, let alone on pure electric vehicles, even the million-dollar Tesla Model S and Porsche Taycan. Of course, the various aerodynamic kits commonly found in various supercars are not absent.

What's more, for aerodynamic considerations, even the lidar on the roof and sides of the car has adopted a flip design for the first time, and only when the driver assistance function is needed, the lidar will "extend" out of the car.

At least in the current production car, I still see such a design for the first time. Although I am not quite sure what challenges this construction will bring to engineers, such a unique design does give me a glimpse of Lotus's persistence and persistence.

Another of Lotus's most well-known is its lightweighting.

As we all know, Lotus has always been adhering to the principle of "non-essential do not use", so in the past models, in addition to "stealing light" in terms of material and structure, even the interior part has adopted a minimalist design, trying to reduce weight by all means.

But now the battery pack of pure electric vehicles is very heavy, and for the sake of safety and endurance, it is very difficult to make the battery pack significantly reduce weight.

Therefore, the exterior of the Eletre body is made of a lot of carbon fiber, while the body panel is made of aluminum, and the frame is mainly composed of aluminum and high-strength steel. I'm sure none of my friends who know Lotus will doubt their determination and technology in lightweighting.

In addition to the extensive use of carbon fiber and aluminum, engineers can be seen cutting details continuously. For example, the carbon fiber spoiler at the rear has removed the middle part to reduce weight and become a split design; the instrument panel adopts a slender liquid crystal design, which is only used to display some key driving information.

Of course, after all, this is an SUV, and it also needs to take into account more daily car scenes. So Eletre has put a lot of thought into the interior part, creating a good sense of high-grade and technological, and also setting up a lot of storage space. But I can still see that Eletre's designers are more restrained and don't win favors by piling up more fancy decorations.

I was also pleasantly surprised by Eletre's performance data.

Let's start with the dynamic parameters. The Eletre is equipped with dual motors and two-speed transmissions at the front and rear, and the maximum output is close to 1,000 horsepower, so the large man with a wheelbase of more than 3 meters and a length of more than 5 meters can accelerate from 0-100 km/h in only 2.95 seconds.

This acceleration ability is placed in the pure electric SUV currently on sale at home and abroad, which is second only to the Tesla Model X Plaid version equipped with three motors.

Lotus Eletre's EPA edge evolution architecture also has a lot to watch.

Due to the use of 800V electrical architecture, it can support a peak charging power of 350kW, which can increase the endurance of 400 kilometers in 20 minutes of charging. The Eletre with a 100+kWh battery pack has a maximum range of 600 km (WLTP conditions), which is also quite powerful for a pure electric SUV with supercar performance.

In my mind, this is the second mass-produced high-performance electric vehicle with an 800V electrical architecture that we can buy in addition to the Porsche Taycan.

As for the suspension part, lotus Eletre comes standard with air suspension and continuous shock absorption control system (CDC), which can achieve body height adaptive adjustment, rear wheel steering and other functions, coupled with Lotus's "ancestral" adjustment power, Eletre should be worth looking forward to in terms of handling. Of course, this will have to wait until we have tested the driving experience in the future to give a conclusion.

Unfortunately, in addition to the four lidars, Lotus did not release more information on intelligent assisted driving and vehicle systems. But there is no doubt that the four lidars are already the "top match" in the currently known mass production vehicles, and the computing platform that can match them should also be the top level.

Finally, pop a small Easter egg for everyone. According to the information I have received, although the Beijing Auto Show has been postponed, lotus Eletre is likely to be officially unveiled in China at the end of April, and more detailed information will be released at that time.

At present, this Eletre is still a very pure Lotus, and it also has a completely different personality characteristic from many high-end luxury SUVs at present. I wonder if this Lotus Eletre, which applies the design principles of supercars to SUV, can meet your expectations for a million-dollar high-performance SUV?

222/4/8

Technical analysis - Lotus Eletre

by Wei Xiyu

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