[Aika Car Aika Perspective Original]
At the low of last month, Lotus officially released its first pure electric HYPER SUV model , ELETRE, which is also the second pure electric model released by Lotus after being acquired by Geely. Among luxury sports car manufacturers, Lotus's electrification pace is the fastest, and even among all luxury sports brands, Lotus's transformation is the most resolute and thorough, with the launch of EMIRA at the end of last year, Lotus completed its best song in the field of pure fuel vehicles. While completing the singing, it also heralds the rebirth of the brand, just like the name of this new pure electric HYPER SUV: "ELETRE" means "new life" in Hungarian.
In the two years since Geely Holdings acquired a 51% stake in Lotus from the Malaysian DRB-HICOM Group in 2017, when everyone was looking forward to what form Lotus would refresh people's understanding after being acquired by Geely, at the end of 2019, Lotus, a pure electric supercar- Evija Stone, broke the sky and officially announced that Lotus, which was backed by a big tree, began a new journey.
On June 4, 2018, Geely Holding announced the appointment of Mr. Feng Qingfeng, Vice President and Chief Technology Officer of Geely Automobile Group, to succeed Jean-Marc Gales as CEO of the company.
At the same time, Geely's big chess game on the Lotus brand has gradually surfaced. Lotus, which settled in Wuhan, has received 26.3 billion yuan of support from Geely Group, of which 12 billion yuan will be used for the research and development of electrification, and lotus's future product context is gradually clear: in addition to the Evija that has been released, four other pure electric models are also coming. They are the pure electric SUV codenamed Type132 launched in 2022, which is also the ELETRE released last month, the pure electric four-door sedan codenamed Type133 in 2023, the "new species of pure electric intelligence" codenamed Type134 in 2025, and the pure electric trot codenamed Type135 in 2026.
Although so far, only the Evija, which costs up to 21.88 million yuan, can be purchased in limited quantities, it has not hindered its short-term sales increase. At least from the sales data of the past two years, the upward trend has been very clear. In 2020, Lotus delivered 1378 vehicles for the whole year, an increase of 4.4% compared to 2019. Lotus sold 1,710 units worldwide in 2021, up 24% year-on-year. With the launch of its last fuel vehicle, EMIRA, Lotus's sales in 2022 will most likely reach a new high. At least from the current market performance, Lotus has begun its road to revival.
In addition to the already released Evija and ELETRE, three other pure electric models are also coming.
It can be seen from the future product line announced by Lotus that in addition to Evija, which is the top and niche product used to reshape the Lotus brand, the other four models are relatively popular products (although the ELETRE is also a million-level model, it is more "close to the people" compared to the Evija, which is priced at 21.88 million yuan and limited to 130 units). Compared with lotus's relatively niche product positioning before Geely's acquisition, its audience will become wider in the future. As for why the model name that begins with "Type", Feng Qingfeng, CEO of Lotus Group, once introduced: "In fact, the Lotus brand has launched more than 100 products in its 74-year history, and the future new products are named according to the sequence number of Lotus's new products. This is also the inheritance of the brand from another dimension. ”
Heritage is especially important for a brand that has experienced more than 70 years of development, where is the story without inheritance?
From the number of the numbers, you can see the glory of Lotus, and the "inheritance of the brand" will make many people wonder what has made Lotus brilliant, and what Lotus can get from the glory of the past. Let's take a look at a few fragments of Lotus's history:
Lotus's first track car, the Mark 3, featured a lightweight aluminium body.
In 1951, Lotus's first track car, the Mark 3, featured a lightweight aluminum body. Light enough, the Mark 3 accelerates from 80 km/h (about 50 mph) to 6.6 s and reaches a top speed of 145 km/h (90 mph).
The first generation of Elite adopted a body made of fiberglass fiber, completely abandoning the bulky pipe frame structure, and the vehicle weighed only half a ton
By 1957, the Lotus Mark 7 was released, the whole vehicle was only 350kg, and the 1.2L engine could let it drive to a speed of 130km/h, and accelerate from stationary to 97km/h in just 6.2s. That same year, the acclaimed first-generation Elite (Type 14), also Lotus's first civilian-facing sedan, was introduced. Its wind resistance coefficient reached 0.29, which is excellent even today. What's more, the Elite uses a body made of fiberglass fiber, completely abandoning the bulky tube frame structure, weighing only half a ton, and is equipped with a 56kW (75 hp) 1.2-liter engine produced by Climax, which has a maximum speed of 180km/h.
In 1957, the Lotus Mark 7 weighed only 350kg, and the small displacement engine allowed it to drive very fast.
In 1954, Colin Chapman won an F1 British Grand Prix at Silverstone with the Lotus Mark 8, which had little power advantage in power, but what won Colin Chapman was The aerodynamic design that Lotus first tried. The low stature, exaggerated front and rear wheel arches, and extra-long rear of the car drastically reduced the Mark 8's wind resistance, which became the key to its victory in this race. Subsequently, classic models such as the Type 49 with "high fixed wind wing" and the Type 79 with "ground effect" have adopted a large number of aerodynamic designs.
Electrification accelerates Lotus's road to revival?
It can be seen that the aerodynamic design plus lightweight body structure is lotus's magic weapon to capture people's hearts. However, Lotus, who is in the F1 arena, has little experience in developing engines. Such a business model is difficult to make a difference in today's increasingly stringent emission regulations for fuel vehicles, coupled with poor management, which has led to the brand gradually fading out of people's sight. However, the development of electrification has brought new opportunities to the brand. After all, whether it is performance or the endurance of electric vehicles, it is inseparable from excellent aerodynamic design and body lightweight, which happen to be deeply rooted and good at Lotus.
The Lotus Mark 8, which won the F1 Uk Grand Prix, has a very good aerodynamic design.
Before being acquired by Geely, Lotus's products were still based on an aerodynamic and lightweight body design (Edge S pictured).
The exposed metal panels inside the Exige S reduce the weight of the car while sacrificing comfort and luxury, which has led to Lotus's long-standing niche attributes.
From both the Evija and ELETRE designs, we can see a number of aerodynamic Lotus's signature pore designs, the porous design of the front of the car that directs the oncoming air during high-speed driving to the vents above the bonnet. A similar porous design can be found behind the wheel arch and even at the top of the D-pillar. The porous design can greatly reduce the resistance of the car body to cut through the air, and the wind resistance coefficient can also be reduced. More active aerodynamic designs are also used by Lotus in the ELETRE design, equipped with multiple sets of Race-Aero air ducts, active down intake grilles, electric tails and other external configurations to optimize the ELETRE vehicle drag coefficient to 0.26Cd.
Excellent aerodynamic design not only improves performance, but also increases battery life in the era of electric vehicles.
The development of electrification has put forward higher requirements for body lightweight, after all, the weight of the battery pack is a headache for any car company. For Lotus, there seems to be only one solution, and that is to make the body lighter. The porous design optimizes aerodynamics while also being a means of lightweighting. The heavy use of carbon fiber makes the Evija only 1680kg. ELETRE even in order to "steal light", the seat is made of wool-blend fabric, which is 50% lighter than ordinary leather; the instrument panel adopts a wing design; and the drive motor integrates a controller and reducer, making the electric drive system smaller and lighter. In the end, the designers put the ELETRE's overhaul quality control at about 2,000kg, which is really rare for a large SUV with a chassis covered with battery packs. In contrast, the 3500kg EQS SUV and the 2440kg BMW iX can see that Lotus is not easy to "steal lightly".
The porous design can greatly reduce the resistance of the car body to cut through the air, and the wind resistance coefficient can also be reduced.
The Eletre seats are made from a wool-blend fabric, which is 50% lighter than ordinary leather.
While inheriting the aerodynamic design and lightweight design of the body, Lotus has not been able to adhere to the past tradition of "doing big things with small displacement", at least from the book data of Evija and ELETRE power, the power parameters of "force big brick flying" refresh the inherent thinking of Lotus in people's minds: Evija equipped with four electric motors has a maximum power of 1470kw (2000 horsepower), peak torque of 1700 Nm, zero hundred acceleration results of 3.0s, 0-300km / The ELETRE, equipped with dual motors front and rear, has a maximum power of 447 kW (608 hp) and only 2.95 s of zero-hundred acceleration.
With a maximum power of 1470kw (2000 hp) and a peak torque of 1700 Nm, the Evija is definitely a model of "force big brick fly"
Compared with other car companies that have worked hard in the field of internal combustion engines to improve the thermal efficiency of fuel oil, Lotus, which has not invested too much energy in the field of internal combustion engines, has become a model of "small boat turning". Lotus does not have to be tied to the strategic transformation brought about by electrification, nor does it have to be subject to the electrification adjustment of traditional car companies from supply chain to production assembly, and it has achieved the resolute determination of today's transformation with light equipment.
It is rumored that ELETRE's entertainment information system is most likely responsible for Yijiatong, a subsidiary of Geely Group.
Relying on Geely's Lotus, it finally no longer has to use other engines as slightly unsure as in the past, after all, even Tesla uses electric motors provided by suppliers, and whichever one is cost-effective will use which product. Geely, which has been in the automotive market for many years, can provide Lotus with a complete set of high-quality and inexpensive supply chains (for example, it is rumored that ELETRE's entertainment information system is most likely to be provided by Geely Group's Yijiatong), and Geely's supplier resources accumulated in building pure electric brands such as Geometry, Extreme Krypton, polestar pole star will also accurately provide Lotus with more preferential parts. Compared with the traditional ultra-luxury sports car brands that currently only put electrification on the agenda, Lotus has taken advantage of the opportunity.
Ferrari plans to launch its first electric supercar in 2025, and Lamborghini is expected to launch a pure electric model until 2028 or 2029, compared with Lotus clearly taking the lead.
As the saying goes, "The times make heroes". The United Kingdom and France announced a ban on the sale of fuel vehicles in 2040, Germany, Switzerland, Belgium and other countries plan to ban the sale of fuel vehicles in 2030, and the Netherlands and Norway banned the sale of fuel vehicles in 2025... At the same time, major brands are also announcing their plans to stop selling fuel vehicles: Mercedes-Benz and Volkswagen will plan to advance to 2035, Audi plans to plan in 2033, BMW plans to plan in 2030... At the same time, major car companies have also accelerated the update speed of pure electric vehicle models. In contrast, the traditional ultra-luxury sports car brands that "turn around" are: Ferrari plans to launch its first electric supercar in 2025, and Lamborghini is expected to launch a pure electric model until 2028 or 2029. When these traditional luxury sports car brands have just launched their first pure electric products, Lotus's product iterations must have gone through several rounds. Therefore, the low-carbon environmental protection policies of various countries have also created opportunities for Lotus to "overtake in curves".
Conclusion: In the future, Lotus, while continuing to deepen the field of aerodynamic design and body lightweight, is bound to open a new chapter, and Geely Automobile can also "learn from the long-term skills to control the Yi", and take the long-term accumulated achievements of Lotus in aerodynamic design, body lightweighting, chassis adjustment and other aspects for my use, thereby improving Geely Automobile's own product strength.
Electrification accelerates Lotus's road to revival?