This Eletre is the exact same size as a Lamborghini Urus and costs only a third of the Urus.
The Eletre is the first ever Lotus SUV and the heaviest Lotus ever. Well, Colin Chapman will be wondering why and thinking what happened to producing lightweight sports cars.
Well, times have changed and the world is moving away from fossil fuel in stages and Lotus Cars UK needs to move with the times.
Instead of looking at a plug-in hybrid powertrain, the new owners, Geely Group, worked with Lotus engineers to develop an all electric super SUV and this is why this Eletre Sports SUV challenges the Lamborghini URUS and even the Aston Martin DBX in terms of performance, sex appeal and even in the cabin luxury department, plus it is all electric making it more desirable in Malaysia.
Meanwhile, it will take a few years, it will happen, for all electric Lotus vehicles to get as light (below 1,000kg) as our very own Exige S.
Interestingly, the selling prices in Malaysia is the biggest surprise. The selling price starts from just RM578,000 which is about the asking price of a Porsche Cayenne SUV or a BMW iX.
The Eletre is equipped with a 112kWh battery pack (Which delivers about 490 to 600km of driving range, WLTP Range).
There are 3 variants of the Lotus Eletre in Malaysia.
Eletre – from RM578,000
Eletre S – from RM648,000
Eletre R – from RM798,000
The immersive experience with the Lotus Eletre begins before the driver has reached the car. Pressing the button on the key or smartphone app activates a moment of theatre that’s unique in the automotive world.
The car’s exterior lights run through a short sequence, the active front grille ‘breathes’ and the illuminated flush door handles deploy. The experience is repeated inside the car as the door closes behind the occupant.
Ben Payne, Head of Studio at LTCC, said: “This walk-up sequence is a ‘peacock moment’ – a little ‘showing-off’ that highlights the Eletre’s engaging personality. It’s a visual expression of a car coming to life, and a metaphor for the reinvention of the Lotus business and brand which begins with the Eletre.”
From the very earliest discussions about the car and its position at the heart of the Vision80-led transformation of Lotus, the Eletre was to be a showcase for how a Lotus can deliver performance-oriented driving thrills and refinement outside of the traditional sports car segments.
It is ‘Born British Raised Globally’ and that is more than a slogan. It has defined a rewarding collaborative process which has set the standard for the development and quality of the next generation of Lotus performance cars.
The fundamentals of what makes the Eletre a Lotus were established in Hethel, UK which is the iconic home of Lotus since 1966.
The global Lotus team worked together to deliver the strategic direction for the forthcoming range of Lotus lifestyle vehicles, plus the dynamic development, systems integration, aerodynamic optimization and overall driver satisfaction of the Eletre.
A new Lotus research and development facility, established in China in 2020, utilizes the market’s leading intelligent technologies and digital competencies to build the Eletre and a new generation of electric high performance vehicles at an all-new state-of-the-art manufacturing center.
Teams at Lotus Tech Innovation Centre (LTIC) in Raunheim, Germany, have assisted with component integration, durability testing, certification and homologation, with experts from the engineering team in Gothenburg, Sweden, working on the car’s EV management systems.
