It’s the biggest and heaviest ever Lotus and also the company’s first ever battery electric car, but does it drive like a Lotus?
The launch of the Lotus Eletre was held in Oslo, Norway, a country which has sold its soul to the electric car economy, while simultaneously flogging its natural gas to the rest of the world. It’s the kind of hand-wringing dilemma that faces Lotus as it starts to sell the Eletre, its first SUV, a 2.5 tonnes-plus monster and its first all-electric car, with three quarters of a tonne of 112kWh lithium-ion battery in the floor.
Just to remind you, the first production Lotus, the XI of 1952, weighed 432kg. Even the Elise of 1996 weighed only 725kg, so doesn’t the Eletre drive a dagger into the heart of the lightweight construction ethos of founder Colin Chapman’s mercurial genius? “Just add lightness,” as he didn’t say…
Over 75 years Lotus has proved a rollercoaster ride of mostly riches to rags. It might have won seven Formula 1 constructors’ and six drivers’ championships, but its road car and engineering businesses have struggled with profitability and reliability – we’re all familiar with the old acronym, Lots of Trouble Usually Serious.
Everyone thinks they can run Lotus, but while many have been called few have been chosen. The little Norfolk-based company has passed around large manufacturers seeking to capitalise on its undoubted innovative design and engineering virtuosity, but ultimately failing to find a long-term place for the firm and passing it on.