Lotus was the car company that confused us the most among those ready to switch to electric cars. Today’s electric vehicles are heavy, but Lotus is expected to make lighter cars. In addition, Lotus is meant to make cars, not SUVs. But there is a reason why it hasn’t been as busy in the last 15 years as, say, Porsche. It’s up to brands to figure out how to keep their history alive while also adapting to new tastes. Going all-electric, on the other hand, seems like too much for Lotus, which could be why the British car company is starting to break that promise. It plans to show off an Eletre SUV with more than 900 horsepower early next year. Another thing Group Lotus CEO Feng Qingfeng told Autocar is that it will be available in Europe in the fall, after its launch in China. Lotus is working on three plug-in hybrid cars right now. The name of one of them has not been announced yet, but it will be a smaller SUV. In addition, all of them will have a 900-volt design called “Hyper Hybrid” that the company says will allow them to charge almost instantly. We don’t know much about the combustion engine part of the hybrid equation. Still, we do know that the Elan has plenty of room for one and that Lotus has many partners, including Geely, from which to source a mill. Lotus says the big SUV’s hybrid system can go 600 miles on a full tank of gas and a full charge. The present Eletre EV dies after about 315 kilometers. In the end, this is definitely the right choice for Lotus. I would be lying if I said I wasn’t worried about the company’s future after Emira goes out of business. The Emira must be protected at all costs and its safety guaranteed.
