Lotus Eletre is an all-electric hyper-SUV

Right off the bat, Lotus is making big claims about the Eletre, describing it as the world’s first electric Hyper-SUV. The looks and the numbers go some way to substantiate that. With an all-new 800-volt platform set to underpin this and multiple future models, the Eletre boasts two motors and power outputs will start from 600PS (441kW). 

With four-wheel-drive, it’s claimed to be capable of a sub-three-second 62mph sprint, though we expect that quoted time to refer to much more powerful variants. This, in a car that’ll be broader on the road than the new Range Rover. On the flip side, it’s also capable of 350kW charging, good for a 248-mile juice-up in 20 minutes. Range on a full charge of its 100kW+ battery is targeted at an impressive 373 miles.

Translating Lotus DNA into the design of an SUV is an unenviable task, but one that’s been carried out by the eminently capable Ben Payne, Head of Studio at Lotus’s new Tech Creative Centre in Warwick. While Russell Carr up at Hethel handles the sportscars, it’s Ben and his team in Leamington Spa that will be penning the ‘Lifestyle’ cars. The other side of the Lotus coin is revealed.

Different team doesn’t mean different principles though. The Eletre picks up the Emira and Evija’s principle of ‘porosity’, with hollow areas in the aluminium bodywork dictating design as much as airflow. It’s very cab-forward, with a long wheelbase and short overhangs. The lack of a hot, oily lump of vibrating metal up front has afforded some freedoms but a distinctive ‘hood area’ remains.

At the nose, the aggression of the sportscars has been brought over, though it’s hard not to draw parallels to a similar execution in the Lamborghini Urus. Those thin, blade-like lights give the car its face, but are only DRLs and indicators. The heavy lifting is done by the units below them, cleverly integrated into the blackened section of the Eletre’s bluff nose. Happily, it’s not as fussy as the Lambo, with clean-cut lines where the colour ends and the black begins. That central black area is also active, with triangular ‘petals’ opening up at speed to allow air through and reduce drag and feed the radiator – a part of what gives the Eletre ‘the most advanced active aerodynamics package on any production SUV’.

The black roof is all-carbon and in appearance visually lowers the Eletre – much like the Mustang Mach-E – as the glasshouse swoops up to meet it. While not a Coupe SUV in the BMW X6 sense, the way the rear slopes down gradually makes even the Aston Martin DBX’s treatment look subtle. Out back, a blade of light divides the rear end, central to a hewn-out area reminiscent of the Evija, with Emira-esque hollowed-out air exit elements at the sides. A split wing at the top guides air down the sloping glass to the active Cayenne Turbo GT-style wing, which features three deployment angles dictated by drive modes. Enormous (optional) 23-inch wheels complete the look.

If the outside is quite unlike any Lotus you’ve ever seen, the same can be said on the inside. It’s a sea of plush materials, art-deco design and immaculate fit and finish. It could be the cockpit of a concept car, if not for Lotus’s claim that it’ll be in production later this year at its new production facility in Wuhan, China.

The distinctive sculpted, yellow-highlighted seats complement a sporty, bejewelled steering wheel, with bronze metallic elements echoed elsewhere throughout the cabin. The Eletre can be had in two individual or three-seat bench rear cabin configurations. A very ‘Lotus’ touch is the use of man-made microfibres and advanced wool-blend fabrics, which are 50 per cent lighter than traditional leather. Likewise, the stylised ‘marble-finish’ carbon-fibre is made from recycled trimmings from the edge of the weave. 

A dash-spanning light bar, reacts to among other things, incoming calls and notifications from your phone, while the minimalist driver’s display and augmented reality HUD deliver the essential info. Optional are cameras instead of wingmirrors, with corresponding displays at the far sides of the dashboard. Dominant in the facia is the enormous 15.1-inch OLED infotainment screen, through which Lotus claims 95 percent of the car’s functionality can be accessed within three touches, via the all-new user interface. That said, there are analogue buttons for some functions too. In the back, passengers get a nine-inch infotainment display with a wireless charging area below. 

It’ll be a highly-connected car, with support for over-the-air software updates. The deployable LIDAR sensors are a world first and will inform the Eletre’s advanced driver safety, assistance and autonomous systems. They also futureproof it with readiness for full end-to-end autonomy in the future. End-to-end means you’ll be able to call your car to you via your phone and likewise, send it away to park itself.

A Lotus has to be about the driving though, doesn’t it? With the mantra ‘For the Drivers’, you’d expect so. It’s into the experienced hands of Gavan Kershaw, Attributes and Product Integrity director for Lotus, that the tall order of making an electric SUV feel like a Lotus falls. In spite of what is one of the most contradictory propositions in motoring we’ve yet heard, he sounds confident.

“Dynamically, the Eletre has been developed to deliver everything you would expect from a Lotus – outstanding ride and handling, highly communicative steering and exceptional driver engagement,” Kershaw says. 

“From a performance perspective, we know the world is watching so there has been an obsession with getting everything just right. Everyone is delighted with it – it’s a world-class product and a true Lotus.”

Indeed this all-new platform isn’t just about modularity. It’s about stiffness, lightness and performance orientation. Bounding it to the road too as standard are air springs and Continuous Damping Control systems, working with active anti-roll bars and rear-steering. The four driving modes dictating the dynamics include Range, Tour, Sport and Off-Road, with an Individual option for customising settings for personal preference. 

Though there’s been a good amount of talk about ‘adding lightness’ with clever materials in the cabin, carbon and aluminium in the construction and so on, one key figure we’re missing is weight. A car on sale now offering similar range specs, if not performance, is the BMW iX, which in top trim weighs over 2.5 tonnes. That’s the number we’ll be most curious to learn as this car nears its market introduction. 

What do you think of the Lotus Eletre? Is it doomed to be a cynical cash cow, or could it really, as Lotus Managing Director Matt Windle claims, “have the soul of a Lotus and the usability of an SUV”? The proof will be in the driving.