SUVs are the way forward in today's age and everyone is looking for a piece of the pie be it your mass market manufacturers or exotic car brands. So, it's no surprise then that Lotus has entered the SUV fray with its fully electric SUV (Also its first ever SUV) the Eletre. Billed as a hyper-SUV by the carmaker, the Eletre is underpinned by a new skateboard architecture the Eletre is the first of four all-electric models aimed at reinventing the sportscar brand as an EV performance car manufacturer.
Lotus seems to have gone with an evolutionary design for the Eletre seemingly adapting its sportscar design to fit a large all-wheel drive SUV. The nose features slim LED daytime running lamps along the edge of the bonnet with the main headlamps housed in a blacked-out section alongside the grille lower down. The SUV features active aero elements in the grille with triangular elements that open and close as per the cooling requirements of the electric motors and battery pack. Aerodynamics too has played a part in the vehicle design with a number of vents located around the vehicle to help increase downforce and smoothen the flow of air around the vehicle. The dual vents in the bonnet are a reminiscent of previous Lotus sports cars while the vents on the front fenders and rear helps extract air from the wheel arches to prevent lift.
As seen on many EV's the Eletre feature minimal overhangs with the wheels push as close to the edges as possible. The coupe-like roofline adds to the sporty design theme with a split spoiler atop the tailgate while a second deployable unit is housed within the lip at the base of the rear windshield. The rear look is rounded off by a sharply raked windscreen and a full-length lightbar running into the vents behind the rear wheels. The lightbar also doubles up as a charge metre glowing orange or green depending on if the vehicle is charging or fully charged.
Lotus has focused on tech in its new SUV and that becomes apparent as you open the door. A large 15.1-inch central touchscreen takes up the centre of the dashboard while a traditional instrument binnacle is replaced by thin strips (less than 30 mm tall) that displays relevant information with a light strip sitting above it. The front passenger too gets a similar display. Also, part of the package is a heads-up display with augmented reality, camera-based rear-view mirrors and a driver monitoring camera used to automatically brighten the in-car displays based on the driver's line of sight. Lotus has will also equip the Eletre with Lidar sensors to offer level four autonomous driving in relevant markets as well. Lotus says that its in-car UI supports 5G connectivity and will feature over the air updates through the car's life cycle.
Speaking of the seats, the model revealed packed in sporty front seats and individual seats in the rear though Lotus says that the SUV will be available as a five-seater as well depending on the market.
Lotus says that the Eletre will feature a dual motor set-up with all-wheel drive as standard across all models and will develop upwards of 592 bhp. A 100 kWh battery pack will be standard with the car able to support fast charging of up to 350 kW. The carmaker says it has targeted a range of about 600 km per charge for its electric SUV. Lotus claims that it's EV will sprint to 100 kph in under 3 seconds and hit a top speed of 260 kph.
Moving to the suspension, the Eletre will feature air suspension with adaptive ride height and adaptive damping as standard with a torque vectoring system, active anti-roll bars and rear wheel steering available as options.
The Eletre will be manufactured at Lotus' new facility in China from later this year.
