Carrying on its legacy of exquisite, statement-making vehicles, the British manufacturer Lotus Cars has revealed the Eletre, a Hungarian name meaning “coming to life”. The hyper-SUV is also the brand’s flagship to compete with other global players in the EV market.
The Eletre takes full advantage of core engineering principles along with the freedom of design Lotus is known for. It is packed with more features and technical detail than can fit in a few sentences, so let’s begin with the exterior.
Ingenious exterior
The Lotus design team adopted a cab-forward design for an aggressive, dynamic front fascia. The hyper-SUV is all-electric, which brings a large weight reduction, and has a long wheelbase. The game-changing idea behind the Eletre is the company’s “carved by air” philosophy, which is all about mastering the airflow and dealing with aerodynamic drag.
Lotus drew on the aerodynamic principle of porosity, also seen in the Evija and the Emira. The car has many porous (hollow) sections in its leading edge, with exit vents over the bonnet, at the top of the D-pillar, and ahead of and behind the front and rear wheel arches. This minimises air resistance and ultimately improves performance and range.
Intelligent and autonomous features
Lotus has set the bar high with state-of-the-art features. Some highlights:
The Eletre has an active front grille (also seen on the Aston Martin DBS GT Zagato). When the vehicle needs cooling, the triangular sections open to cool the motors, battery pack and brakes: another example of porosity.
For autonomous driving, sensors play the vital role, but on some vehicles they are mounted all around the body in a way that does little justice to the design. Lotus has handled this impeccably and is the first to offer deployable LiDAR. These range sensors sit on the roof ahead of the active rear spoiler and on the side profile of the car. The door mirrors are replaced by an electric reverse-mirror display with three cameras: one for rear parking visibility, one for a 360° view around the vehicle, and one that works with the LiDAR sensors for automated driving.
The Eletre has numerous ADAS systems, including lane departure warning and lane keep assist, adaptive cruise control, front and rear cross-traffic alert, lane change assist, door open warning and child presence detection. Another eye-catching feature is the adaptive matrix LED headlamps. Conventional lighting reacts to basic inputs such as steering angle and wheel speed; the matrix LEDs instead work with the car’s on-board camera, which sends images of the road, traffic, weather and road conditions, and the system adapts to them.
Interior and infotainment
The Eletre’s infotainment system sets new benchmarks for the industry. It has a 15.1-inch OLED landscape touchscreen showing all vehicle information. Lotus built the UI/UX on three pillars. Lightweight describes both the experience and the components, with touch gestures reaching about 95% of the functions. Intelligent means a versatile, fully customisable system. Immersive, a Lotus hallmark, means interactions that thrill and engage the user.
EV platform
The Eletre is built on a new integrated high-voltage power distribution system and a dedicated 800 V electric vehicle architecture. The Eletre R offers a WLTP range of up to 490 km (304 miles) with a peak power of 905 hp; the Eletre S and the base model offer 600 km (373 miles) and 603 hp.
Every Eletre combines strong dynamics, genuine Lotus performance and comfort. Continuous Damping Control (CDC) and air suspension are standard, along with five-link rear suspension for better ride and handling. The car comes with Tour, Range, Sport, Off-road and Individual drive modes on all variants.
What makes it a Lotus?
The Eletre is the company’s first hyper-SUV, and a true example of how innovative engineering and advanced materials let Lotus achieve strong performance through light weight. It carries forward the legacy and prestige of Lotus Cars and does justice to its founder’s famous saying:
“Adding power makes you faster on the straights, subtracting weight makes you faster everywhere.” — Colin Chapman, founder of Lotus Cars
Conclusion
This post covers the newly launched hyper-SUV from Lotus Cars, the Eletre. For more detail, see the launch event hosted by the British manufacturer.