When it comes to car-making architecture or platforms, I believe everyone is no stranger. As a strong guarantee for improving vehicle performance, realizing technology sharing and rapid product iteration, the platform architecture is increasingly favored by automobile brands, Toyota has TNGA architecture, Volkswagen has MQB platform, and Mercedes-Benz has MFA platform. It can be said that the platform architecture is the arsenal of an automobile manufacturer, and the car brands that can independently develop the platform architecture are often industry leaders with strong scientific and technological strength.
The supercar brand Lotus has long been known for its pure performance sports cars. As the wave of electrification continues to deepen, Lotus has embarked on a full-scale electrification transformation, successively launching four architectures, including Sports Car Architecture, Hypercar Architecture, Electric Sports Car Architecture and EPA Architecture focused on lifestyle vehicles.
Being able to create four car-making architectures, Lotus's scientific and technological strength can be seen. So what is the strength of the model built based on the architecture? We delve deeper through the interpretation of two models, one is the first pure electric supercar Evija based on the pure electric supercar architecture, and the other is the world's first Hyper SUV Eletre based on the EPA architecture.
Lotus EVIJA, a surreal car from Mars
If you take Evija to Mars, it is not a violation at all. The full and tight muscle lines, the integrated carbon fiber body, and the exaggerated and flexible "pore" wind tunnel make people suddenly have the illusion of "outer space vehicle", full of charm and mystery.
Limited to 130 units worldwide, the Evija is Lotus's first all-electric top-of-the-line supercar, making it the most powerful production road car in history with a terrible target output of 2,000 horsepower. Evija inherits lotus aerodynamic technology genes, captures fighter inspiration, draws on the Le Mans racing air fluid application method, uses air ducts to guide air flow through the body shell, and creates a unique "porous" design language of Lotus, which brings super downforce while reducing wind resistance.
As a pure electric supercar, the Evija has a very powerful powertrain system, equipped with a lithium-ion battery with a power of 2,000 kilowatts and four electric motors, capable of generating a target torque of 1,700 Nm, which can accelerate from 0 to 100 km/h in 3 seconds and a top speed of more than 320 km/h. Therefore, Evija is a real "performance beast".
The key to this is the collaboration between Lotus and Williams Advanced Engineering, where they conduct research on battery management systems and conduct thousands of hours of virtual testing and digital analysis to make batteries, motors and transmissions run at up to 98 percent efficiency. In addition, the cooperation between the two parties has directly contributed to the birth of the world's fastest-charging battery, which can be fully charged in 12 minutes and fully charged in 18 minutes when it is equipped with a 350-kilowatt fast charging device. At the same time, if the 800 kW fast charging device is commercialized, then the Evija can be fully charged in 9 minutes.
We know that body material is an important part of the architecture. Evija, based on the pure electric supercar architecture, is the first road sports car in the history of Lotus to adopt an integrated carbon fiber monocoque shell structure, the monocoque molded carbon fiber chassis has excellent strength, rigidity and safety, the total weight of the monomer shell base is only 129 kg, together with innovative powertrain system components and clever packaging process, making the Evija body weight of 1,680 kg, is currently the world's lightest mass production pure electric supercar.
In addition to the design language, the three-electric system and the body material, another important embodiment of lotus pure electric supercar architecture is intelligent configuration. With the driver at the centre, the Evija's steering wheel is designed in the Style of Le Mans LMP or F1 racing, with five driving modes at the bottom, Range Long Mileage, City City, Tour Cruise, Sport Sport and Track Track, available in the centre of the bottom; In front of the steering wheel is a digital display, which is the only screen in the car, which displays all the necessary information in a centralized manner, concise and condensed; Other controls are located on the suspension console, which has sensor buttons for haptic feedback, and the button group is honeycomb-like design, each button is located in a hexagonal groove, which is very sci-fi. In addition, users can seamlessly connect their smartphones with their vehicles through Apple CarPlay or Android Auto, accessing features such as music and navigation services.
It is worth mentioning that the Evija is also the world's first road model equipped with laser light sources for both low and high beams. Laser headlights have obvious advantages, luminous brightness can reach 170 lumens per watt, more than 70 lumens more than LED headlights, and laser headlight irradiation and penetration is very strong, theoretically speaking, the irradiation distance of laser headlights can reach more than 600 meters, which is twice that of the LED light source, and even rain and fog weather can ensure that the driver's field of vision is wide, improving the safety factor.
Overall, the Evija based on the pure electric supercar architecture has a full performance score, the technology features are durable, and even "Top Gear" does not hesitate to give the "One to Watch" award belonging to the electric car to this new car. The meaning of "One to Watch" is simply "if there is only one electric car left in the world, it must be Evija".
Lotus Eletre, a performance sports car disguised as an SUV
For Lotus, which specializes in sports cars, the Eletre, the first Hyper SUV, is not only a masterpiece of lifestyle cars, but also a benchmark for technology migration for track driving. With an acceleration time of 2.95 seconds per 100 km/h, a maximum output of nearly 1000 hp and a top speed of 260 km/h, the Eletre has ranked among the world's best-in-class performance SUV sequences from the book data alone.
But incorporating track-level driving into everyday driving is what sets Lotus Eletre apart.
From the hardware point of view, Eletre, although different from Evija's architecture, inherits Evija's supercar design language, such as the cab forward-shifting body attitude, ultra-long wheelbase and ultra-short rear suspension, highlighting Lotus's signature mid-engine layout style. Following the essence of the "porous" design, the vehicle has designed 7 sets of Race-Aero air ducts, as well as the leading active aerodynamic kit in the same class, which effectively improves the performance of the vehicle.
It is worth mentioning that the Eletre rear body is composed of a floating split spoiler made of carbon fiber, inspired by racing cars, and looks a lot like the small fairing wings of a racing car. Optimised for aerodynamic angles, the roof spoiler directs airflow under the glass, allowing airflow to flow into the active rear wing, which automatically unfolds at high speeds and offers three different angles of unfolding depending on the choice of driving mode.
From the software point of view, Eletre is the first model developed based on the evolutionary architecture of EPA edge, adapted to the "track-level intelligent driving" technology independently developed by Lotus Technology, so the whole vehicle applies a number of high-tech achievements, including equipped with ultra-high-performance 4 lidar, ultra-high-definition camera and 4D millimeter wave radar hardware combination, for Eletre "virtual brain" data analysis and rapid calculation, as well as the realization of "track-level intelligent driving" provides the necessary prerequisites. What's more, smart driving is designed to be forward-looking, and many new features can be updated and applied through OTAs.
To enhance the driving experience, Eletre has applied state-of-the-art digital configurations. The car is equipped with multiple displays, including a full LCD instrument cluster in front of the driver and co-pilot, a 15.1-inch landscape touchscreen between the two full LCD screens, and a HUD display with augmented reality (AR) technology. In addition, Eletre applies new interconnection technology, compatible with 5G communication technology, which can achieve real-time interconnection. As a result, users can connect to the vehicle through the smartphone APP and update the software at any time through the OTA, as well as purchase and set up the latest features in a timely manner through the software.
Hardware and software work together to create Eletre's "Hyper" image. We know that the Hypercar is a more advanced model than the Supercar in the English context. The Hyper high-end form of the SUV is not yet fully defined, but from the performance of Eletre, the Hyper SUV is not only a performance machine, but also the concept of technological attributes and humanistic design.
Write at the end
Both Evija and Eletre are Lotus pioneers in the era of electrification, highlighting the technological advancement and technological imagination of Lotus's pure electric architecture, bringing us extraordinary sensory experience and cognitive impact. According to Lotus's future product planning, Eletre will successively launch the E-class four-door coupe codenamed Type 133, the D-class "Pure Electric Intelligent New Species" codenamed Type 134, and the pure electric trot planned to be launched in 2026, which together form a highly competitive pure electric product matrix. I believe that with the scientific and technological strength of Lotus pure electric architecture and the continuous iteration of technological progress, we will see more imaginative driving machines.