Lotus’ new Porsche Taycan rival is tracked

lotus flower‘ the launch of luxury electric vehicles will continue with rival Porsche Taycan Type 133was tested for espionage in China ahead of a reveal expected this year.

In the image published by China Automotive Newswe can see that the sedan – currently codenamed Type 133, whose name starts with the letter E – is quite large.

Interior shots also reveal a panoramic glass sunroof and a similar dashboard layout to the previous version. Eletre crossover uses a 15.1-inch OLED central screen running Lotus Hyper OS.

It also has a camera instead of an outside rearview mirror, as seen on the Eletre.

Lotus CEO previously said car Type 133 is compared to Taycanand will get “roll control active, CDC [continuous damping control]independent active rear-wheel steering and active aerodynamics”, and a power output of at least 441 kW.

This amount of power will put it against the mid-range Porsche Taycan GTSproduces 440kW from its dual electric motor setup.

More powerful versions of the Type 133 sedan can compete with the high-performance Taycan Turbo or Turbo S.

The Eletre crossover is offered with a choice of 450kW/710Nm and 675kW/985Nm powertrains, with a claimed WLTP range of 600km for the front and 490km for the latter.

In the form of a dual-motor R, the 5.1m-long electric SUV can accelerate from 0-100km/h in 2.95 seconds.

It uses a 112kWh battery, 800V power architecture, and can support DC charging with up to 350kW of power.

Peter Horbury, senior vice president of design at Lotus, said last year that while “there must be some continuity and family identity” on electric vehicles (EVs), “each member of the Every family can have its own character”.

After launching the Type 133 E-class sedan, Lotus will unveil a D-class SUV (Type 134) in 2025 and a sports car (Type 135) in 2026.

Lotus is in the process of implementing four new platform architectures:

• Hypercar, used by evija
• Sports car, used by The Emirates
• E-Sport, used for electric Lotus and Alpine sports cars
• Premium, used by everything else

The Premium Architecture has been designed to accommodate CE-segment vehicles, the battery is 92-120 kWh and the initial wheelbase ranges from 2889 mm to 3100 mm.

All models on the Premium architecture will be built in China at Lotus Technology’s new factory in Wuhan.

The Lotus Technology division was established to “accelerate innovation in the areas of batteries and energy management, electric motors, electronic control systems, smart driving, smart manufacturing and more”.

It still works with Lotus’ existing UK development team, with the UK unit responsible for the engineering and production of sports cars and supercars.

High-end models will join the all-electric Evija supercar and the Emira, Lotus’ last petrol car, made at Hethel in the UK.

Geely-owned Lotus was confirmed last May it’s scheduled to go public “in 18 months to two years from now”.

It also aims to expand annual production to 100,000 vehicles by 2028, 90,000 of which will include the new ‘Premium’ range of vehicles. It has produced 1500 vehicles by 2021.

Lotus has never offered a sedan, unless you count on an improved version of the Vauxhall Carlton/Opel Omega called the Lotus Carlton. It also produced a tuned version of the Ford Cortina, among other engineering contract work for other automakers.

The company had previously planned to enter the luxury car market in 2009, with then-CEO Dany Bahar unveiling a series of six models in 2010 to preview the rollout. company model.

One of them was a sedan called the Eterne, but it evaporated along with the rest when Bahar was shown the door.