An electric SUV, why dare to call itself "Hyper"?

As the tip of the pyramid of the automotive industry, hyper car is unattainable for the vast majority of people. From the familiar "three god cars" Ferrari Rafa, Porsche 918 and McLaren P1, to Bugatti, Koenigsegg and Pagani, any configuration and technology applied to these tens of millions of Hyper Cars is difficult to appear in mainstream models or even million-class luxury cars. But now, with the release of lotus Eletre, a pure electric model that dares to call itself a "Hyper SUV", more people can enjoy the Hyper Car-level driving experience, no longer just staying in the imagination.

Consistent supercar DNA

Whether it is a Super Car or a Hyper Car, the biggest difference between them and ordinary cars is not the power and price. A BMW 760 can also be equipped with a large-displacement engine with five or six hundred horsepower, but it is still fundamentally different from a supercar with the same horsepower, and a tens of millions of Rolls-Royce does not mean that it has a Hyper Car driving experience, the biggest charm and uniqueness of the sports car comes from its body design.

As a sports car manufacturer with a history of more than 70 years, Lotus's founder, Colin Chapman, began to transform the sports car body from the beginning of its establishment, and F1 has become Lotus's most important "test ground". The lightweight brand GENE and the aerodynamic technology that has always been studied have made Lotus the world's top car manufacturing level and become the king of the F1 circuit.

In 2019, Lotus released the Evija electric Hyper Car, which cost more than 20 million, and this car became the epitome of Lotus's top technology, and subsequently pioneered the concept of porous design.

The porous design can greatly reduce the resistance of the car body to cut through the air, so that the oncoming air can pass through the body during high-speed driving, minimizing the wind resistance coefficient. There are as many as 16 aerodynamic kits on the Evija, plus two exaggerated "Venturi Tunnels", which achieve ultra-low wind resistance and use the body holes to form a "ground effect", obtaining a downforce of 1.8 tons that exceeds its own weight.

These design concepts, which represent lotus's highest level of technology, are now carried over to the Eletre, with 7 air ducts and several active aerodynamic kits distributed throughout the vehicle. The porous design of the Eletre front splits the oncoming airflow, directs the airflow through the vent above the cover, and then transmits it to the top of the D-pillar through the front wheel arch, and finally allows the air to cross the body in a perfect arc to achieve the optimal wind resistance coefficient of the whole vehicle.

The Eletre uses two technologies, a dual-piece rear spoiler and an active rear spoiler, which automatically opens when a certain speed is reached and offers three different unfolding angles for up to 116 kg of downforce depending on the choice of driving mode.

Before that, we had almost never seen such an aerodynamically focused SUV, which in the traditional perception was a supercar patent, and what Lotus did with the Eletre not only allowed more people to enjoy the ultimate experience of top aerodynamics, but also changed people's understanding of SUVs. This is a high-performance SUV that is truly built with the concept of supercar, and it is also an SUV with the soul of Hyper Car.

Electrification enables more possibilities

Eletre is a sign of Lotus's full opening of electrification and intelligent transformation, which not only brings about changes in the form of power, but also makes huge adjustments and upgrades in body structure, power and handling.

For electric vehicles, because of the existence of large-capacity batteries, the lightweight of the whole vehicle is always a problem, but the greater difficulties have also stimulated the greater potential of Lotus, and the Eletre has been more extremely lightweight "transformed".

First of all, the Eletre's body is heavily made of lightweight materials, such as the rear wing, mirror shell and roof, while the body panel, chassis and suspension are also made of aluminum alloy material, and even the seat wrapping is replaced by a lighter wool-blend fabric, resulting in a 50% weight reduction. In addition, the location of the Eletre charging port has been specially designed to minimize the path of charge flowing through the ground, reducing hardware equipment such as redundant wiring harnesses.

Compared with fuel vehicles, the biggest improvement in the performance of electric vehicles is in the power level, and the characteristics of electric motors allow the vehicle to have the maximum torque output of the moment, so that Lotus, which is already known for its acceleration performance, has a more powerful power performance.

The high-power and high-torque motors equipped by Eletre are arranged in front of and behind the body, with a maximum power of nearly 1000hp, and with the electronically controlled four-wheel drive system, its acceleration time of 100 kilometers only needs 2.95s.

Among the many fuel car supercars, there are very few who accelerate less than 3 seconds per 100 kilometers, and in addition to the three hypercars, there are only ceiling-level supercars like McLaren Senna, Lamborghini Aventador SVJ, Ferrari F8 Tributo.

Of course, as we said before, power and acceleration capabilities are not the biggest charm of Hyper Car, handling performance is the most important difference between it and other models, and electric vehicles have inherent advantages over fuel vehicles in handling.

Many people naturally think that electric vehicles are far inferior to mechanized fuel vehicles due to the addition of too many electronic components. But anyone who has driven an electric car fiercely on the track should have an experience that the handling limit of the electric car in the corner is much higher than that of the fuel car, and it can even be as stable as in the straight, and this is caused by the low center of gravity caused by the addition of the battery pack to the chassis.

In order to be able to take advantage of the attributes of electric vehicles one step closer, the EPA architecture developed by Lotus will make Eletre's battery packs flatter and lower position, and develop a 6D chassis technology based on the electrification architecture, realizing 6 degrees of freedom chassis control, braking, air suspension, CDC shock absorption, active stabilizer bar, rear wheel steering, vehicle stability control system are all integrated.

In addition, Lotus Eletre offers five driving modes of Range, Tour, Sport, Off-Road and Individual, which adjust the steering, shock settings, powertrain and accelerator pedal response when switching is required, which is standard on all models.

Of course, Lotus also inherited the practice of classic sports cars in terms of body structure. In terms of body proportions, the Eletre references the Lotus sports car's signature mid-engine layout, shifting the cockpit position forward, resulting in a more balanced weight ratio between front and rear, giving the vehicle a more stable center of gravity and higher limits when cornering.

For intelligent driving, all we can think of is to achieve intelligent driving through the cooperation of intelligent software and hardware, but Lotus obviously has another direction of pursuit of intelligent driving, and they hope that intelligent systems can help drivers have better driving skills in the track.

In terms of smart hardware, Eletre is equipped with four 128-line lidar, seven 8MP cameras, six millimeter-wave radars, four 2MP surround view cameras, and 12 ultrasonic radars. Using this hardware, Lotus hopes to create a track-level five-fold perception system that can even help drivers brake, steer and wire in the track, giving drivers the same hand-to-hand guidance as a professional racer, giving us a unique perspective of a sports car manufacturer embracing new technologies.

Eletre brings Lotus's supercar DNA and the achievements brought by the revolution of electrification technology to the extreme, the brand's technology accumulation allows Eletre to have supercar-level, track-level aerodynamic performance, and the natural advantages of electrification make Eletre reach a height that many fuel vehicles cannot reach in terms of performance. The emergence of Eletre is also a major symbol of Lotus's "new life", and it also makes many car enthusiasts look forward to Eletre's official debut in China at the end of the month. It has to be said that the opening of this electric era of "new era" and "new track" may make Lotus occupy a higher position in the supercar industry.