Eletre, Emira, Evija: ultimate three-car garage from Lotus at Goodwood Festival Of Speed, plus the Emira GT4 race car

  • Eletre hyper-SUV makes world public debut later this week
  • With Emira and Evija, Eletre completes ultimate three-garage from Lotus
  • Emira GT4 race car also makes public dynamic debut tackling Goodwood Hill Climb
  • Emira and Evija also in action on track
  • “We can’t wait for another exceptionally busy and very successful Goodwood” – Matt Windle, MD, Lotus Cars

 

Hethel, UK – 22 June 2022  One of the world’s most eagerly anticipated performance cars, the Lotus Eletre hyper-SUV, will make its world debut in public later this week at the Goodwood Festival of Speed.

Unveiled on 29 March, the bold, progressive and exotic EV has the soul of a Lotus and the usability of an SUV. It will take centre stage on the all-new Lotus stand at the UK’s biggest four-day annual showcase of motoring and motorsport.

And if last year’s event is anything to go by – when car fans queued round the block to see the all-new Emira, unquestionably the star of the show – the Lotus stand will be a huge attraction once again.

Goodwood also marks the public premiere of the ultimate three-car garage from Lotus, as the Eletre will be joined on stage by the beautiful Emira sports car and the pioneering Evija hypercar – a whole new generation of Lotus performance road cars. And creating a four-car family will be the Emira GT4; the race car was unveiled just last month, making its dramatic dynamic debut on the test track at Hethel, the home of Lotus since 1966.

The Emira GT4 will be in the thick of the action on the iconic Goodwood Hill Climb on Thursday, Friday Saturday and Sunday, as will the Emira and Evija. And look out for Formula 1 world champion Jenson Button, who will be behind the wheel and on the Lotus stand at selected times during the event.

Matt Windle, Managing Director, Lotus Cars, commented: “Last year we were the featured marque at Goodwood Festival of Speed and all eyes were on the Emira. The attention it attracted and the deposits we took on the stand were phenomenal. Fast forward 12 months… another Festival, another new car from Lotus. The Eletre is equally as exciting for us; the most significant milestone yet in the ongoing transformation of Lotus and something genuinely different to everything else on the market. We can’t wait for another exceptionally busy and very successful Goodwood.”

The Lotus Eletre – which can also be seen in the event’s Electric Avenue showcase – is the first of a new breed of pure electric SUVs. It takes the core principles and Lotus DNA from more than 70 years of sports car design and engineering, evolving them into a desirable all-new lifestyle car for the next generation of Lotus customers.

The company’s famed expertise in the fields of ride and handling, steering and optimised aerodynamics have been carefully and respectfully evolved. The Eletre takes the heart and soul of the Emira and the revolutionary aero performance of the Evija, and reinterprets them as a hyper-SUV.

A bold new dimension to the Lotus performance car portfolio, the Eletre delivers a significant number of firsts for Lotus – the first five-door production car, the first model outside sports car segments, the first lifestyle EV, the most ‘connected’ Lotus ever. And yet it remains a true Lotus, a beautiful car ‘carved by air’, packed with pioneering technology, genuine sporting performance and simplicity of purpose, designed and developed by a passionate and global team.

The Eletre is 4WD, has a battery capacity that’s over 100kWh and with power range from 600hp to 900hp. A 350kW charger will deliver a 400km (248 miles) range in just 20 minutes. The car’s target maximum WLTP driving range is circa 600km (373 miles). It also comes with the ability as standard to accept 22kW AC charging which, where available, reduces the time plugged in.

Technology includes the most advanced active aerodynamics package on any production SUV, and intelligent driving technologies such as the world’s first deployable Light Detection and Ranging (LIDAR) system in a production car. Add in a dynamic walk-up sequence that delivers a moment of theatre every time the driver approaches the car, and it’s clear the Eletre is making a simple statement – this is Lotus reinvented, the birth of a new icon into the Lotus stable. Production starts at an all-new state-of-the-art factory in China at the end of this year and first customer cars will arrive in Europe in spring 2023.

The Lotus Emira GT4 marks the start of an exciting new era in performance GT racing for Lotus. It is the first new model from Lotus Advanced Performance, the bespoke vehicle and experiential division of the business launched earlier this year. The first year of production is already sold out.

The return to world motorsport is a key pillar of the company’s transformation from a UK sports car company to a global performance car business and brand.

Each Emira GT4 customer will receive a homologated performance machine, hand-built with lightweight motorsport components and equipment to meet the latest safety regulations. The advanced composite bodywork makes the car exceptionally lightweight, and is coupled with Toyota’s race-proven 3.5-litre V6 engine and optimised GT4 aerodynamics derived from the road-going Emira’s advanced exterior design.

 

Ends

Notes to Editors

For more information please contact the Lotus Communications team:

James Andrew, Executive Director, PR and Communications

jandrew@lotuscars.com

+44 (0) 7384 830903

 

Rob Borrett, Head of Media and Launch Programmes

rborrett@lotuscars.com

+44 (0) 7718 560789

 

Richard Yarrow, Head of News and Technology Communications

ryarrow@lotuscars.com

+44 (0) 7471 994525

 

Alastair Florance, PR Manager, News and Technology

aflorance@lotuscars.co.uk

+ 44 (0) 7802 918662

 

Samantha Thomas, PR Officer, Product Press and Digital Media

sthomas2@lotuscars.com

+44 (0) 7909 813785

 

The Lotus media site – https://media.lotuscars.com – contains news, images, specifications and full details of current models, as well as heritage cars and engineering technology.

For the latest news and information from the Lotus PR Team please follow:

https://twitter.com/LotusCarsPR

https://www.instagram.com/LotusCarsPR

 

For Lotus Cars social media please follow:

https://www.facebook.com/LotusCars

https://twitter.com/lotuscars

https://www.instagram.com/lotuscars

https://www.youtube.com/grouplotus

https://www.linkedin.com/company/group-lotus

 

About Lotus

Lotus Cars is based in Hethel, Norfolk, UK, and is the global HQ for sports car and hypercar manufacturing operations, Lotus Advanced Performance and the iconic 2.2-mile test track. Lotus Cars builds world-class high-performance cars, born out of legendary success on the racetrack including 13 FIA Formula 1 world titles and many other championship honours. In July 2021 Lotus unveiled the all-new Lotus Emira, its last petrol-powered sports car and best-of-breed, and in July 2019 it launched the Evija, the world’s first all-electric British hypercar. Customer deliveries of both cars will begin during 2022. In March 2022 Lotus revealed the Eletre, the world’s first all-electric hyper-SUV. Customer deliveries will begin in 2023. The Lotus Type 135, an all-electric sports car, is currently being designed and engineered at Hethel.

Lotus Engineering provides comprehensive consultancy services to many of the world's OEMs and Tier 1 suppliers. It is internationally recognised for its long-standing contribution to ground-breaking engineering and innovative vehicle development. Its expertise extends beyond automotive; in August 2021 a Lotus Engineering-developed track bike helped Team GB’s cyclists win seven medals, including three golds, at the Tokyo Olympics. An international consultancy with offices around the world, Lotus Engineering is headquartered at the Lotus Advanced Technology Centre on the University of Warwick’s Wellesbourne Campus in the UK.

Lotus Tech is an affiliate company of Group Lotus, established as part of the Vision80 strategy established in 2018. With operational assets across China, the UK and Europe, Lotus Tech is dedicated to delivering smart lifestyle battery electric vehicles (BEVs) such as the Eletre. Lotus Tech is focused on R&D in next-generation automobility technologies such as electrification, digitalisation and more. In addition to the Lotus Eletre, Lotus Tech plans to launch further BEV models including a sports sedan (Type 133) another SUV (Type 134) and more, as Vision80 reaches maturity in 2028.

Group Lotus is either the parent company of or affiliated with the above. In 2017, Geely Holding Group, one of the fastest growing automotive group in the world, acquired a 51% stake in Group Lotus. The other 49% is owned by Etika Automotive, a Malaysian conglomerate.