The announcement of prices and specs for the Lotus Eletre – as part of the Unleash the Future global broadcast on 25 October – fired the starting pistol for the car’s tour of Lotus Centres across the UK.
For the last month the all-new Hyper-SUV has been presented to depositors and brand fans right across the country. Events have taken place in Surrey, Sussex, Southampton, Exeter, Bristol, Birmingham, Glasgow, Manchester and Bradford. This week the Eletre arrives at Lotus Silverstone (Mon 28 Nov & Tue 29 Nov), and Lotus Essex in Colchester (Thu 1 Dec & Fri 2 Dec). The tour concludes on Saturday with a gala event at Lotus HQ in Hethel, the home of the business since 1966.
Many hundreds of people have taken the chance to get up close and personal with the Eletre, the first all-electric mainstream vehicle from Lotus. Production begins this month at a new state-of-the-art factory in China, and the first cars will be delivered to UK customers next summer.
The tour has given them the opportunity to see the car’s bold and exotic exterior design for the first time, and sit inside its beautiful and tech-laden cabin. For those who had already paid a deposit, it has been the perfect time to think about their final spec. For those who had signed up to the ‘Keep Me Informed’ email alerts from the sales team, it has been a chance to talk to the Lotus product experts and think about taking the process one step further.
One of many highlights of the Eletre tour was the opportunity to do something slightly different in Manchester. Such was the demand to see the car that Lotus chose to showcase it in a private exhibition space – the Concorde Centre. Located at the city’s airport, it’s home to one of British Airways’ iconic and now-retired supersonic jet liners, and the opportunity for a guided tour of the plane was an added bonus for the scores of attendees.
John Wiltshire, Lotus’ Regional Director for the UK, has been at many of the tour events. He’s spent much of the time chatting to people about the Eletre specifically, but also the ongoing transformation of Lotus from a UK sports car company to a truly global performance car business and brand.
“The Eletre is such an exciting car and people have been so eager to ask questions about every aspect of it – not just the latest news on prices and specs, but the design, the tech, the performance of the all-electric powertrain. I spoke to so many depositors who can’t wait to get their Eletre, and so many others who said seeing it at a Lotus Centre has convinced them it is the right next car for them.”
John added: “It’s a real honour to have toured the UK over the last few weeks and to have met so many people who are passionate about Lotus. Young and old, many have stories to tell about what Lotus means to them or their family, and they’re genuinely excited about what is happening to the company today. The whole tour has been a great success.”
The Lotus Eletre is the first of a new breed of pure electric SUVs. It takes the core principles and Lotus DNA from almost 75 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 soul of the latest Lotus sports car – the Emira – and the revolutionary aero performance of the all-electric Evija hypercar, and reinterprets them as a Hyper-SUV.
With a world premiere in London in March this year, the Eletre is ‘Born British, Raised Globally’, a collaboration between highly experienced and dedicated Lotus teams in the UK, Germany and China. They include the product definition and attributes teams at Hethel, the home of Lotus since 1966; the design teams at Lotus Tech Creative Centre (LTCC) in Coventry; the engineering teams at Lotus Tech Innovation Centre (LTIC) in Raunheim; and the Lotus Tech engineering and manufacturing teams in Wuhan.
Already thousands of customers around the world have placed deposits to secure their Eletre. Three different versions of the car are available – Eletre, Eletre S and Eletre R – with the choice of two powertrains. Eletre and Eletre S feature the 450 kW / 603 hp single-speed version, with a maximum range of 600 km (373 miles). The Eletre R comes with the flagship 675 kW / 905 hp dual-speed system and a maximum range of 490 km (304 miles). Torque figures are 710 and 985 Nm respectively, delivering a 0-62 mph (0-100 km/h) performance of either 4.5 or 2.95 seconds. The 112 kWh battery for both versions has a charging time (10%-80%) of just 20 minutes using a rapid charger.
The Lotus Eletre is priced £89,500, the Eletre S costs £104,500 and the Eletre R is £120,000. For more information visit www.lotuscars.com
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