CarBrandLogos archive · Lotus · 2022

LotusLotus Eletre

A two-and-a-half-tonne electric SUV from the company founded on subtracting weight.

Photo: Alexander Migl · CC BY-SA 4.0

The story

A defining chapter in Lotus history.

Explore the ideas, engineering and context that shaped the Lotus Eletre, then continue into its specifications and place in the marque's lineage.

Origins

Lotus under Geely ownership needed volume, and volume in the 2020s means an SUV. The Eletre, revealed in 2022, is a large five-door electric crossover with a coupe roofline, twin motors, all-wheel drive and the kind of power figures that would have been supercar territory a decade earlier. It is built in Wuhan rather than Hethel, which alone tells you how far the company has moved.

Lotus Eletre 007 · JustAnotherCarDesigner · CC BY-SA 4.0

Design and engineering

Ben Payne's design borrows the porosity Lotus talks about in its sports cars, with air channelled through the bonnet, the wheel arches and the D-pillars, and it can be specified with deployable LIDAR pods for driver assistance. The chassis uses air suspension and active anti-roll control, and reviewers have generally agreed it steers and rides better than its mass has any right to allow.

Lotus Eletre 006 · JustAnotherCarDesigner · CC BY-SA 4.0

In production

That mass is the problem the car cannot argue its way out of. Colin Chapman's entire method was to add lightness, and the Eletre weighs roughly three times what an Elise did. Lotus's defence is commercial rather than philosophical: models like this fund the sports cars, and without them there would not be any. A plug-in hybrid version with a 2.0-litre turbocharged four has since been added for the Chinese market.

Lotus Eletre Auto Zuerich 2024 DSC 6781 · Alexander-93 · CC BY-SA 4.0

At a glance

The facts that define it.

Produced

2022–present

Engine

Petrol plug-in hybrid:

Designer

Ben Payne

Body

5-door coupe SUV

Technical specification

The Lotus Eletre, in detail.

Production: 2022–present
Class: Mid-size luxury crossover SUV
Body style: 5-door coupe SUV
Layout: Dual-motor, all-wheel-drive (Eletre) ; Front-engine, all-wheel-drive; Front-engine, dual-motor, all-wheel-drive (PHEV)
Engine: Petrol plug-in hybrid: ; 2.0 L DHE20-PFZ turbocharged I4
Designer: Ben Payne
Assembly: China: Wuhan, Hubei (Wuhan Lotus Technology)
Manufacturer: Lotus Cars