Recently, the luxury SUV market has earned enough eyeballs, Maserati launched the Gregale challenge Porsche Macan, BMW X5 also brought the BBA's SUV market competition into a new stage through domestic production, and Lotus's latest ELETRE is a new player in this market.
There is a lot of talk about ELETRE.
Some say it's conservatively designed, far less visually stunning than expected, and a bit disappointing as a pure electric SUV.
Others say it will be like Porsche's Cayenne that year, bold, controversial but can be The Sales Force of Lotus.
Some people say that ELETRE deviates from Lotus's car-making concept, and the market will not accept it.
So, what is the design level of ELETRE, as the first SUV model of Lotus, does it have the ability to convince consumers to get a piece of the luxury sports SUV market?
First of all, let's talk about the design, after all, at this stage, ELETRE is in a state where the new car has been released but there is still a distance from the listing and delivery, and it is difficult to judge the various practical experiences of the new car.
So the look and feel of the shape as seen by the naked eye helped to establish our first impression of ELETRE.
From the picture, the exterior design of Lotus ELETRE is relatively simple, unlike many new energy models with exaggerated curves and complex shapes to attract attention.
Even the prismatic shaped active grille under the front surround is hidden through black painting, making the entire front face look more low-key.
In addition, the front of the car is relatively tall, and it does not look as low and streamlined as the Tesla Model X and Model Y electric SUVs.
These are the reasons why some people complain that its design is not radical enough and "too conservative".
But just dig deeper and you'll find that the seemingly mundane and conservative appearance of the ELETRE actually hides a large number of unimaginable designs of past fuel SUVs.
Looking down at the front of the car from a high angle, you will find that the front cover part has two very exaggerated pneumatic channels, and the air flow is input through the air intake of the front face, and then it is divided into multiple airflows through the upper body, sides and bottom of the body.
Above the rear windshield, there are also two independent tail wings, and the taillights also have tail air channels similar to the pure electric supercar EVIJA on both sides, which are used with the active rear spoiler, double-layer diffuser and other designs, and the aerodynamic kit of the vehicle can provide more than 200kg of air downforce.
This data may not seem like an exaggeration, but it has actually reached the aerodynamic design level of many top sports cars.
This excellent aerodynamic design requires a lot of body space, and it is precisely the electric system that provides this condition for the ELETRE.
So in fact, it is not that it is conservatively designed, but that it hides exaggerated places.
And when it comes to inner design, ELETRE is not "conservative".
Leaving aside the "conventional stuff" of hidden door handles and electronic rearview mirrors, the flip-over design of the lidar hidden in the roof and wheel arches alone is enough to prove that ELETRE is keeping up with the trend at the technological level.
There are also up to 5 screens in the car, namely two 12.6-inch screens in front of the driver and co-pilot, a 15.1-inch central control entertainment screen, a 9-inch entertainment screen in the rear, and a 29-inch AR-HUD function.
Moreover, the information screen facing the driver and the passenger is in a narrow and long ratio, and the two largest screens in the front and middle of the rear row can be folded, so that the large screen will not interfere with the integrity of the interior shape.
To be honest, this is one of the best multi-screen interior designs the professor has seen so far.
Although the actual performance of these intelligent equipment is unknown before touching the real car, from the perspective of posture, Lotus has really come to the tip of the trend this time.
From the known information alone, the Lotus ELETRE is definitely an excellent model that keeps up with the trend of the times.
But can it succeed in a competitive environment?
From a product point of view, the advantages of Lotus ELETRE are still relatively obvious.
First of all, ELETRE is positioned as a medium and large SUV, its body length, width and height reached 5103mm, 2019mm and 1630mm respectively, while the wheelbase reached 3019mm, in the mainstream level of the same level, completely without the narrow space in the car because of its Lotus identity.
Therefore, from the existing public picture data, it can be seen that in addition to the rear seats need to be moved forward due to the impact of low-rise back shape, affecting the performance of legroom, the ELETRE's cabin space is still at the mainstream level of similar SUVs.
In addition, the published pictures also show that the new car uses a lot of fur and fabric splicing and wrapping processes in the carriage, and many decorative parts in the interior have a good texture, and the performance in terms of material matching and design high-end sense is also online.
Therefore, ELETRE is expected to have a good performance in the luxurious atmosphere of the car.
In addition, as a pure electric SUV positioned for high performance, lotus ELETRE also has electric vehicles as always, there is no highest but only higher power performance.
Together, the two drive motors output more than 600 horsepower, and the rear axle motors are also equipped with a two-speed transmission!
This powertrain gives ELETRE super acceleration performance of 0-100km/h in just 2.95 seconds and 0-200km/h acceleration in less than 12 seconds.
This is the level of the Porsche Taycan!
The 100kWh battery pack can also allow new cars to obtain a 600km cruising range under WLTP conditions, which is also at a leading level for the current high-performance electric vehicles.
In addition, unlike many pure electric vehicle models that only have brute force and lack of handling quality, Lotus is an expert in chassis tuning, and the pure electric platform created by them is also worth looking forward to.
In view of this sense of quality that far exceeds the interior of the Lotus model and the dynamic performance that has very outstanding advantages, the chassis tuning that is very worth looking forward to, the Lotus ELETRE is very worthy of consideration for driving enthusiasts.
However, in this medium and large luxury SUV market that has developed very maturely, Lotus ELETRE will also face a very tough competitive situation.
In the front, there is one of the big brothers of medium and large sports luxury SUVs, the Porsche Cayenne, and the Maserati Levante, which has also been on the market for many years.
In the latter, there is Tesla, the industry leader in the field of pure electricity, and their Model X, as well as the HiPhi X, which is ahead of its design ideas in terms of technology luxury.
Against the new car-making forces, Lotus ELETRE may not be as radical as them, without too many fanciful designs.
Tesla with the first-mover advantage as early as the global electric vehicle leader image, early harvest of a large share of the electric vehicle market; and Model X also has super power performance, its latest three-motor Plaid version can achieve 0-100km/h 2.6 seconds of perverted acceleration, is THE MOST POWERFUL OPPONENT OF ELETRE.
Gao Co-ordination is a new power brand born in China, they obviously do not have much of the shackles of traditional car-making concepts when creating HiPhi X, and refresh many people's cognition of luxury electric vehicles with details such as spread wing doors and doorless handle designs.
But the good news is that Lotus, as a sports car brand with high popularity in the world, although it is also an electric rookie, with the blessing of brand awareness, ELETRE is easier to get attention in the market than the new power brand.
Moreover, with the launch of the domestic Model 3 and Model Y, these two "cost-effective products" have become tesla's most important sales source. Tesla's pioneering luxury image with millions of models such as the Model S and Model X laid the foundation for the huge success of the Model 3 and Model Y, but they have become unappreciated.
So Lotus ELETRE still has a chance.
Although the pursuit of high-performance SUVs is still dominated by fuel models, the Cayenne series, which saved Porsche many years ago, is still selling well.
However, the rise in fuel prices and the promotion of new energy trends are vigorously promoting the development of the new energy market, and those main high-performance SUVs in the market will eventually embark on the road of new energy.
But as one of the most forward-looking products in this market segment, the plug-in hybrid version of the Porsche Cayenne is only equipped with a 2.0T engine, and the comprehensive output of the whole system is only 284kW (386Ps), which is a bit big between the gap and the ELETRE.
Therefore, at the level of new energy, Lotus has a first-mover advantage.
And according to foreign media news, the overseas market price of Lotus ELETRE will be about 100,000 pounds, which is about 829,300 yuan at the current exchange rate. If you refer to the overseas price of Lotus's latest sports car EMIA First Edition (75,995 pounds, equivalent to about 630,200 yuan) and the domestic price (858,000), it can be inferred that the domestic market price of ELETRE will be in the early 1 million.
And this price is not to say that it is far lower than the Aston Martin DBX, which has landed more than two million, even compared with Porsche's Cayenne and Maserati's Levante, it also has a certain price advantage when considering its performance and technology gap.
In addition, the market success rate of famous sports car brands launching SUVs is often not low, whether it is the earliest Porsche Cayenne or the later Maserati Levante, Lamborghini Urus, Aston Martin DBX, they have become the sales responsibility of their brands.
Therefore, on the whole, even if it is attacked by traditional brands and new power brands, the future of Lotus ELETRE is still bright.
Write at the end
As Lotus's first SUV model, the ELETRE has all the features that can be buckled up as "deviant" - electric, luxurious, SUV...
It is foreseeable that ELETRE will suffer fierce criticism from many Lotus fans; and in such a situation where there are strong enemies and there are chasers behind them, and their own supporters have also partially defected, Lotus ELETRE really needs to rely on better product quality, more accurate and in place to meet user needs and difficult to refuse the advantage of the price, in order to obtain the same achievements as the Porsche Cayenne in the past.