Forget Hybrid We're Going Straight To Electric

LOTUS IS GOING ALL-IN on pure electric cars, as part of a $180m-plus investment in its Hethel headquarters and engineering capabilities. In his first interview, Lotus Cars managing director Matt Windle reveals how future sports cars will be pure electric, that Chinese-built ‘lifestyle vehicles’ will also be zero-emission and how Lotus is developing its own architectures, rather than modifying Geely platforms.

-  Phil Mcnamara

Windle has been managing director since January 2021, though he began his second stint at Lotus in 2017 – the same year Lotus came under the majority ownership of China’s answer to the Volkswagen Group, Geely Holdings, and Malaysian car group Etika Automotive (which holds the other 49 per cent). The new owners have pumped more than $180m into Lotus, including the construction of a new assembly hall at Hethel.

Soon Windle was in charge of all UK product development and intrinsically involved in writing Lotus’s 10-year business plan out to 2028, the company’s eightieth year.

“When we wrote our product strategy, which was the start of the Vision80 plan, we just had to write EV into that,” explains the 49-year-old boss. “With the legislation that’s come along, with the market data showing volumes are just going to grow and grow: the move towards electrification, it’s the right thing to do.”

Lotus has already shown the first car of the Vision80 plan, the Evija, a carbon-fibre monocoque EV hypercar. Its four motors are claimed to produce a combined 1470kW, which would make it the most powerful road car in history. The price tag? $3.6m a pop.

While the Evija is limited to 130 units (as befits its 130 type number), the next car – currently referred to as Type 131 – will be the first series-production model of the new era. Does Type 131 run a downsized engine with hybrid electric assistance?

“We’re not doing any hybrid drivetrains, because we’re going straight to electric,” states Windle. “Type 131 is basically the bridge to the new era of Lotus cars: it’s our last internal-combustion-engine car.”