Lotus planning BEV versions for all future models
After the fully electric Hypercar Evija presented a few days ago, Lotus wants to introduce just one pure combustion sports car at the end of next year, after which every future model will also have a fully electric version.
The plans were announced by Phil Popham, CEO of the Geely manufacturer. Of the 2,000 hp Evija, 130 are to be produced. “After we’ve built our 130 hypercars we’ll concentrate on rebuilding our core sports car range,” Popham said in an interview with British media sources.
Lotus could omit the otherwise often-taken intermediate step of hybridisation. When asked whether Lotus would skip all hybrids on the way to electrification, the Lotus CEO simply replied: “This is certainly an option.”
Thanks to its carbon fibre body construction, the recently introduced electric sports car Evija will weigh 1,680 kilograms, and the battery will enable ranges of up to 400 kilometres. At the same time, the car should also be able to accelerate to 100 km/h in less than three seconds and reach top speeds of up to 320 km/h. The Evija will cost more than two million dollars.
Under its Chinese owner, the British sports car brand has big plans: In recent years, around 1,700 sports cars (all with petrol engines) were sold, but the theoretical capacity of the plant at the Hethel headquarters of 5,000 vehicles should soon be exhausted. Up to 10,000 should be theoretically possible using a two-shift operation, however, for future volume models, such as an SUV, production in China is also conceivable.
“The manufacturing location depends on the local advantage”, said Feng Qingfeng, CTO of Geely. “The UK is good at making hand-made cars, so sports and hypercars. In China, we may have more advantage in infrastructure for mass-production cars.” When the decision will be made was not announced, however, the logical split for production competencies is readily apparent.
0 Comments