Irregular SUV called beautiful. Sure, cool, maybe even stylish for the holidays. Marketing departments like to launch SUVs with adjectives that tap into our primal instincts of hauling stuff or plowing through forest roads, but the typical Range Rover, Toyota RAV4, or Volvo has left its roots behind. practical for a long time. Appearance, as opposed to practical ability, is increasingly important with SUVs. Looks are also completely subjective, but we’ll go ahead and say it: Inside and out, the Eletre is a gorgeous SUV.
Brand new SUVs for Lotus. Even long after Bentley and Porsche put tradition aside and launched their own first SUVs, Lotus is still a sports car company. With SUVs As the dominant passenger vehicle type, it was perhaps inevitable that Lotus would eventually wear its hat. As expected, Lotus incorporated a lot of its old sports car tricks into the design and production of the Eletre.
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Light up for me
Colin Chapman, founder of Lotus Cars, had a quote that summed up Lotus’ entire 74-year history: “Simplify, then add light.” The essence of the perfect sports car is shared with the essence of the perfect racing car — and Lotus is a manufacturer of race cars, first and foremost.
Since large battery packs make electric vehicles heavier than internal combustion engine vehicles, Eletre came up with a few tricks to get as much weight off the 201-inch SUV as possible. By comparison, it’s about the same size as the Ford Explorer and longer than the Ford Mustang Mach-E, another all-electric, performance-driven SUV.
Lotus says the Eletre features “extensive” use of carbon fiber and aluminum to reduce weight (still undisclosed). The exterior body panels are aluminum, and all black exterior trim, such as the wheel arches, rear spoiler and side mirrors, are carbon fiber. The stiff interior trim is also in carbon fiber and the seats are upholstered in a wool blend fabric, which, according to Lotus, is 50% lighter than regular leather seats.
You can also see the minus trend in the front center console, which echoes the interior of Eletre’s Lotus EV sister, much delayed. Evija hypercar, where there is an open aisle between the left and right legroom, also reduces weight.
