Lotus isn’t ever one to make headlines, except when it comes to their first foray into the SUV market with the Eletre. 600+ horsepower and a prestigious name behind it is plenty… right?
Remember death. In 2017 when the Geely Group bought a controlling stake in Lotus, some thought it could spell the end of one of the world’s few grassroots automobile manufacturers out there. For the better part of a century Lotus has been committed to making purely basic sports cars caring less about appealing to the general population and instead creating vehicles that pander to the purist.
Now, marred by corporate structure and bureaucracy, the golden era might be coming to a close. Geely stated that they would want 100,000 sales from Lotus by 2028, glossing over the fact that it took the company 70 years to reach that mark. On a good year Lotus sells around 5,000 vehicles plus some change. You’d be hard pressed to find a dealer in the United States outside of major metropolitan areas such as New York or Chicago.
Here at our home base in Minneapolis, our local Lotus dealer resides in an unmarked and unadvertised space within a Jaguar-Land Rover dealership (also owned by the Geely Group). To drive home the fact that Geely’s new plans for the brand’s future might be a complete 180, it’s the Eletre. Darkness eventually comes for all, but in the car world it rears its head in the form of an SUV.
The Lotus Eletre Is A Small Brand’s First Big Time Punch
While other boutique manufacturers have been apt to adopt an SUV format, Lotus has always been a brand that seemed to hold out. Even when Aston Martin came out with the DBX and Bentley with the Bentayga– Lotus’ customers never seemed too keen on the vision behind an SUV. After all, this was the brand that manufactured purpose-built sports cars that never had the needle on convenience. In recent memory, Lotus’ Evora had the option for a radio and air conditioning, an anachronism in today’s market.
Yet, we could feel the tides changing when Lotus began to heed to the EU’s ever-so growing stringent emission laws when the brand showed off the Emira, the last vehicle to ever have an internal combustion engine while wearing the Lotus brand. The beginning of the end? Maybe.
But the Eletre still is a kick-ass car just waiting to be torn up.
Don’t Be Fooled, The Lotus Eletre Can Still Hang With The Big Boys
It might be tempting to see the Eletre as a desperate ploy to garner mainstream support for the Lotus brand and give Geely justification to leave the company’s small-time roots. However, the Eletre spans well beyond that, this is a true super-SUV meant to hang with the industry bigwigs.
Matching up with vehicles such as the Aston Martin DBX, Lamborghini Urus, and the freshly launched Ferrari Purosangue, the Eletre isn’t shy to back down from any of its more well-established foes.
Divvied up into three distinct trims, Lotus offers a “pick-your-poison” style fare when it comes to its first SUV. The base trim offers 603 horsepower from a 109 kWh battery pack that’s good for 523 pound-feet of instant torque. A step above gets you the Eletre S which doesn’t offer any sort of tangible power gain, instead adds a small suite of features such as ambient lighting and a sound system but tacks on a large spoiler to further bring home the point that this isn’t just a grocery getter.
Where it gets interesting is the Eletre R, Lotus’ flagship trim level and the top of the pack. The R pounds out 905 horsepower and adds a two speed transmission that situates itself to be more competitive with industry rivals such as the Audi E-Tron GT and the Porsche Taycan. The transmission shifts seamlessly unlike a regular torque converter transmission, feeling more like a drop in RPMs instead of a herky jerk. The Eletre’s base model and the S should get around 315 miles on a full charge while the R will sacrifice its range for the benefit of the track– only expecting to get around 260, a 55 mile difference between the two powerplants.
The Eletre Is A Little Subdued To Drive
The Eletre excels well in normal driving situations, but it seems like the vehicle has forgotten exactly where it came from. It takes a laissez-faire approach to acceleration, with the instant torque being more linear than most electric, enthusiast-oriented vehicles. Lotus claims that the Eletre R can sprint to 60 mph in 2.8 seconds while the base and the S can run it in 4.7 seconds. Despite the disparity, for an SUV, those numbers are healthy and beat out some of its counterparts like the Audi E-Tron Sportback.
The Eletre retains its heritage by keeping somewhat of a petite stature. While the words small and SUV don’t usually get along well in the same sentence, Lotus has maintained its past. The Eletre is a tad bit smaller than a Lamborghini Urus and around as big as a Nissan Rogue. The car is not nearly as tall or boxy, its dimensions help keep it nimble around tight turns and canyons. While having Brembo brake calipers up front and Pirelli P-Zero PZ4 Elect tires all around, it’s still hard to imagine the Eletre’s 5,500 lbs working for it when it comes to comparing the SUV against some of the brand’s other offerings.
A Design Language That Speaks Out
When it comes to the Eletre’s appearance, one thing is apparent; the piggybacking off of Lotus’ shift towards EV ergonomics and design. The SUV is dictated by sharp, yet smooth flowing lines along with a gloss black roof. The pairing creates the look of a sports car, and the car’s eagerness to sit close to the ground amplify that same sensation.
The Eletre shies away from the coupe-y architecture of some of their vehicles such as the E-Tron Sportback, but its sloping rear glass design makes it look much more attractive than most of its rivals. It was clear that Lotus tried to make this look like a Lotus in the best way possible, not trying too hard but not afraid to incorporate precedent either.
Sitting aloft the back glass is an interesting piece of the Eletre, rear floating wings accentuate the design language, feeling futuristic and the feel of a spaceship which carries on into the interior. The guts are where the Eletre starts to separate itself from the rest of the pack. A lush setup gives way to a spacious 2+2 layout, a 15.1 inch center display, as well as a fully digital instrument cluster. We tend not to spend too much time hung up on the interior, but it’s special and hard not to miss.
At the end of the day, Lotus is changing, maybe for the better or for the worse. It’s come a long way from the far cry of being a performance shop in the middle of England, and now with the SUV starting at a steep asking price of $115,000, we can’t wait to truly drive it to get the full experience.
