What is it like to make an interview into a philosophical discussion meeting that rises to reality and fiction, the self and others?
Lotus may be able to answer you.
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If you randomly select a lucky friend from WeChat, answer: What are the brands of the world's three major sports car manufacturers? With the exception of Ferrari and Porsche, perhaps most people can't hit the third correct answer.
Lotus's existence, perhaps best described as a "legend on the rivers and lakes", is now making a comeback in its most magnificent posture, bringing with it the last glimmer of light before sunset in the fuel age, the first rays of dawn before the electric sunrise, the smell of oil concrete during the carnival, and some "appalling" big truths.
I thought of summing up Lotus's arrival in three naïve and absurd phrases: road flight, breaking superstitions, and romance to death.
"Among the world's traditional fuel sports car brands, Lotus is the first to fully transform to electrification."
"In the electric age, zero-hundred-plus acceleration is not worth it."
"Only people who don't understand aerodynamics miss large-displacement engines."
This day we talked about God, god is not God.
Displacement is a product of a race exclusive to the golden age of oil, and when the era of electrification arrives, it can only rage under various high-pressure policies and consciousness awakenings, becoming a dazzling and useless gem in history.
In the race of straight-line speed, it is more than barbaric data, but in the map of the four-dimensional world, horsepower is only a reference value, and it is really necessary to say that in the mountain road where there are many curves and the road is not wide, a Ferrari may not be able to win a Lotus that weighs less than a ton - this is the faith and pride of the Lotus people.
In the speech entitled "New World Top Notes", Feng Qingfeng, CEO of Lotus Group, was decisive and full of spirit.
Lightweighting and aerodynamics are instincts engraved in Lotus's genes, and this persistence is more like a shout between a rival Ferrari who loves and kills. Enzo Ferrari has said that aerodynamics is only for those who don't make engines, and that pride seems to have been shattered in the moment when the era of electrification arrived. Wind resistance, lightweighting and aerodynamics have become the directions of electric vehicle experts, and Lotus's advantages are also reflected.
"In 2018, at a historic inflection point in the production and sales of global fuel vehicles, Lotus launched the Vision 80 brand revival plan, the first transformation to electrification among the world's traditional fuel sports car brands. In 2019, we released the pure electric supercar Evija, which refreshes the horsepower limit of mass production cars. "The transition was painful and difficult, but thankfully, the Lotus team under Feng Qingfeng has found the exact direction and started to attack with all its might.
"The real driving experience isn't all about speed." At the same time, as a driving enthusiast, Feng Qingfeng, CEO of Lotus Group, has his own unique insights on driving: "We must take precision as the very powerful gene of Lotus, horsepower can be fast on the straight, only light weight, aerodynamics can be fast on any road, this is precision." ”
In the era of electrification and intelligence, the first to put down the body and run hard to another runway is a very difficult thing for most of the honorable old money, and more often it is a new compromise for the times, or the accommodation of policies and regulations. Lotus, who is accustomed to doing his own thing and has a strong sense of self-belief, is obviously dismissive of this kind of idol baggage, and even the solemn turn of the elephant can be expressed in such a romantic way, and behind Feng Qingfeng's calm and self-assured attitude is Lotus's inclusive and free soul.
Lotus is both far and near to us, it has indelible traces of the brand's historical heritage, and desperate to rush to a new fission future, I ask Lotus: "After the self-revolution, what kind of posture will we live in the virtual hypothetical future?" ”
"I believe that as long as there is light in our hearts, it will always be light." Feng Qingfeng's answer carried a stubborn youthful spirit, abstractly and concretely expressing Lotus's confused and determined future.
"Murphy's Law says that everything is harder than you think, and everything takes longer than you think. But after entering the era of intelligence, I believe that everything will come sooner than you think. When you still imagine that it will take 20 years, 30 years to achieve, it may actually come in another 10 years, which is the revolution brought to us by intelligence. ”
"I think cars in the world of the future may come sooner than we think." This may be the truth that Lotus did not hesitate.
After declaring "the first traditional fuel sports car brand to fully transform to electrification" and resetting the definition of "aerodynamics", the Auror Lotus made another "tactical reclining", released a new mid-engine high-end (fuel) sports car, called back to the rearview mirror of the times, defined as "The Other Sports Car", Lotus Emira, continuing the Evija design language, officially describing the car:
"Emira condenses Lotus's dedication to aerodynamics."
In China's first province to ban the sale of fuel vehicles, the release of the last fuel sports car sounds proud and provocative, but in fact it is a cool and romantic farewell ceremony, from the obsession of positioning itself as an extremely niche "lightweight racing car" to the complex and almost paranoid start ignition step, which can be seen that this is a brand with a very sense of self-ritual.
As the last fuel sports car released "in the name of the wind" during the vision80 strategic transformation, the Emira is the most versatile road sports car lotus ever built by Lotus, with a magnificent sense of sadness and a limited shopping desire that people want to rush.
Unlike Porsche, the master of mass production who "is cool or not enough, I must strive to be the mature look he likes", Lotus is more like the daffodils of ancient Greek mythology – with its own aesthetic, deeper love for its own aesthetic.
Of course, this aesthetic has been fully recognized by the market, as well as the electric car geek Musk's unstingy favor - in 2013, Musk spent $920,000 to buy a Lotus Esprit underwater car that appeared in James Bond's movie "007 Underwater City", which has been placed in Tesla's design studio like a foreign object, and by 2020, the design soul of the car has finally been realized by Musk as a muse to the contemporary Tesla Cyberruck.
This daffodil aesthetic gene also continued to Emira. Design director Russell Carr humorously said: "I'm lazy to follow Evija's design language, but I'm not going to apologize. ”
That's right, it is the pure electric supercar myth Evija, which costs 21.88 million and is limited to 130 units worldwide - it is also the work of Lotus in 2019, this "little lazy", which pulls the design level of Emiira to a height that Ferrari is difficult to match.
The good news is that Emira will open pre-sales in China in November this year, making up for the regret left by Evija, who has only a single-digit sales quota in China.
LED headlights inspired by Celtic combat livery, front hood for boomerang airways, muscular front hub... Absorbing the design concept of the tens of millions of supercars, Emira's appearance is amazing.
In addition to the stunning appearance, Lotus has decorated Emira with a highly technological digital interior for the first time, as well as ADAS systems such as KEF audio, Carplay, ACC, etc., providing thoughtful and safe configuration while generating minimal interference to the driver and retaining the purest driving experience.
Is that enough? No, that's not enough lotus.
What is really worth applauding is that every seemingly beautiful design on Emira, every beautiful arc, has a specific function on it, which is what Lotus calls "performance-defined aesthetics".
For example, the air inlet like a gyroscope is matched with the air outlet under the A column, and the air inlet and the air outlet under the C column are matched, because the heat of the central engine is to be taken out, but such rational precision calculation does not prevent all this from looking beautiful - "This is also a thing that Lotus will always insist on when designing vehicles in the future, we will not do unnecessary aesthetic design, it must be related to performance, I think this is our core, it will not change." "Lotus Technology CMO Qingyan is like a number of family treasures.
As a technical partner of the Emiira project, AMG is working with Lotus for the first time.
In response to the characteristics of The Emira, the four-cylinder engine, which was first used for Lotus, made a number of fundamental adjustments, including the lateral power output, the mid-mounted rear-drive engine, and the modification of the intake and exhaust systems.
Emira has a power output of 360 hp, 0-62 mph (0-100 km/h) acceleration of less than 4.5 seconds, a top speed of 180 mph (290 km/h), a maximum torque of 430 Nm, CO2 emissions of 180 g/km, and a design target of 1405 kg of lightest weight.
Decades of racing genes hand-built, the body of each muscle and bone arrangement, Lotus has a wealth of control experience and amazing talent ability, as the F1 race wave of Lotus, know that lightweight and aerodynamics is more important than high horsepower, EMIRA also inherits a strong aerodynamic design and the ultimate lightweight, not only has a clear streamlined body, but also the only model in the same class can produce passive downforce at any speed. And according to the weight distribution of the front and rear of the vehicle, the suspension geometry is accurately balanced and the front and rear axle distribution.
What is the point of this design?
This means that as speed increases, Emira's downforce increases, resulting in excellent grip when cornering, and stable, precise and predictable handling.
F1 world champion Jenson Barton became the first driver to test drive Emira, and he was full of praise: "Emira has just the right luxury cockpit, the first digital interior, high-speed cornering ability, and is a light and agile performance beast. It will soon be in China and other parts of Asia, and I hope you all have the opportunity to experience it and you will love this car. ”
As mentioned many times before: Lotus is a particularly ceremonial brand.
With the debut of the last fuel supercar, Emiira, Lotus also released a fuel-flavored perfume, PASSÉ, to commemorate the glory and achievements of the fuel era. It is said to have a sense of ceremony because the box of perfume is sealed with plaster and needs to be broken manually.
"If you want to reminisce about the past, you have to break it first." Feng Qingfeng explains the meaning of plaster sealing.
"Imagine a picture: a cool summer afternoon, the windows rolled down, the smell of wind on the side of the road, the smell of flowers and trees, the smell of tires rubbing against the asphalt, and even the smell of gasoline coming straight out." Chen Qi, general manager of Lotus Technology Marketing Center, depicted the unique taste of this perfume with a figurative scene.
Colin Chapman, the founder of Lotus, believes that the driver and the car should achieve the same pace of "breathing level", that is, "WEAR THE CAR", in this coordination of breathing levels, with perfume as the medium, by marking the smell of air to highlight the intuitive impression of aerodynamics to let the car "breathe", which is the origin of "PASSÉ".
As an exclusive gift for the first car owners in Emira China, PASSÉ looks like an old-time oil drum, sealed with plaster, and condenses the speed, wind, pressure, track, hood and sunshine into a bottle of perfume – this is Lotus's most unique farewell to the glorious fuel era.
I never knocked on this Pandora's box, which contained Lotus's unknown future, romantic like the moment when a lover was not yet yet old.
Officials say that between morning and dusk, find the correct positioning, determine the course, and go to meet the sea of stars. As Feng Qingfeng summed up in "New World Top Notes", "This is the 131st product in Lotus's 73-year history, and it is also the last fuel vehicle, in order to meet the new era, we completely bid farewell to the past and firmly embrace the future." ”
It's too good to be willing to change a word.
Many things look beautiful from a distance; when you look closer, you find that it is really cute.
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On Palm Avenue, the evening breeze envelops the sea and the neon lights of the wine, people sit at the street table to push cups and change cups, watch the traffic in the afterglow drive on the pink avenue, intoxicated people sit quietly on the steps and tap the retro melody of the street tavern with their fingers, couples on the beach hug and lean, and the crimson sunset stamps the Lotus with a new stamp, unable to distinguish the original color.
Regardless of mood and sorrow, all emotions seem to dissolve in retro light and shadow, blurring the boundary, letting the last trace of the evening wind blow away the sweltering heat before the summer leaves, letting the last piece of sunset under the night take away the sorrow, Emira is this evening wind, it is this sunset, no matter what the era is, before the last corner of the sky disappears, enjoy the wonderful time under the palm of the sunset.
"I won't run away before sunset."
Rational and romantic, Lotus.