The 71-year-old brand shows off its first new model in 11 years.
Lotus unveiled its first all-electric supercar, the Evija in London.
The 1,972-horsepower coupe will be the first developed under Lotus’s parent company, billionaire LiShu Fu’s Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co., which also controls Volvo Car Group, and will be the halo for the rest of the Lotus range that includes the Elise, Exige, and Evora.
It will be the first all-new car from the English automaker in 11 years. The name, pronounced e-VI-ya, is derived from variations of Eve.
Evija has a one-piece carbon fiber monocoque chassis, a very low ride height of just 105mm (4 inches) off the ground, and an electric powertrain developed by Williams Advanced Engineering, the same company known for motorsport success in Formula One and Formula E. The midmounted battery pack is located behind the two racing seats of the car, which weighs just 3,703 pounds—lighter than a Ferrari California.
Lotus plans to settle on single tone that could rise and fall as the car accelerates and which would be carried forward to future electric models, though owners might also be able to download their own favored engine sounds.
Under the hood, the four-wheel-drive car has five drive modes: Range, City, Tour, Sport, and Track. It will be able to hit 62 miles per hour in less than 3 seconds. Top speed will exceed 200 mph. The total driving range will be 250 miles on one charge of the midmounted 2,000kW battery—a power pack eight times stronger than that of a Formula E race car. Using a 350kW charging unit, it takes 12 minutes to charge the car to 80% of full and 18 minutes to get a full charge.
Inside the cabin, Evija will be the first Lotus ever to contain full modern digital infotainment, which will receive periodic software updates much like Teslas. (Recall that Lotus, for its part, helped build the first Tesla Roadsters.) Drivers can use a new Lotus smartphone app to monitor the car from anywhere in the world, check the battery charge status, potential current driving range, and other things such as remotely turning on the heat or the air conditioning prior to them getting inside. At the track, a chronograph system in the app allows the driver to record lap times and then review the performance compared to past sessions.
Production of the Evija will be limited to 130 units and will begin next year in Norwich, U.K. Pricing starts at £1.7 million ($2.1 million), with a £250,000 ($310,500) deposit required to secure a production allocation.
