LOTUS ELETRE S

Big, heavy, ultra-powerful, electric SUV seemingly violates every principle on which the Lotus legend was built. Does that matter?

- MATT PRIOR

TESTED 6.7.23, OSLO, NORWAY ON SALE AUGUST PRICE £105,805

Remember when Chinese car-making giant Geely bought Volvo? It went quiet for a few years, then came launch after launch. The same is now happening with Lotus, and its new generation starts with the Eletre - a big car in every sense.

They call it a hyper-SUV, because it's a 4x4 with at least 603bhp. A coupé-ish saloon will follow, then a smaller SUV, all on the same platform and all made in China. Only after that will there be a two-door sports car built in Norfolk, electric like the rest. The Emira petrol sports car and Evija electric hypercar feel a bit incidental to what's coming.

The Eletre's Electric Premium Architecture, of which 47% is high-strength steel and 43% is aluminium, shares some basic ideas but "almost zero components" with anything used elsewhere in the Geely empire.

The Eletre has a length of 5.1 metres, a height of 1.6 metres, four or five seats and pricing that ranges from £90,805 to £121,305.

Between the base car and the R is the £105,805 S, tested here. It has the same 603bhp as the base car via two 302bhp motors, one at each end, with open differentials. The R gets a bigger rear motor with 603bhp for a 905bhp total.

Every version has a 109kWh battery under the floor, running at 800V and able to charge at rates of up to 350kW.

The generous 373-mile WLTP range is aided by a competitive aerodynamic rating of 0.26Cd.

Air springs are standard, while rear steer and 48V active anti-roll bars are options fitted to our S test car (they are standard on the R).

And if none of that hardware sounds like the 'simplify and...' school of Lotus, wait until I tell you the kerb weight is 2520kg.

Also remarkably un-Lotus is the interior. Bar the smell, there's nothing in here that an existing Lotus owner would recognise but it's none the worse for it.