It’s been 11 years since Dany Bahar took out six covers of six different Lotus concept cars at the Paris Motor Show, Ethos, Eternal, Spirit, Elan, Elise and Elite. None of them ever happened, and Lotus continued like Paris in 2010 never, once Dany, um, left the company. On Tuesday, Lotus made the ambitious announcement that it would develop four new power plants vehicles (two SUVs, a sports sedan and a sub-Evija sports car), which will be built at a new facility in Wuhan, China.
It’s hard not to make the connection with Dany Bahar’s wild Lotus vision in 2010, but there’s a key difference between that and the current Lotus. Today’s Lotus has money. Where it used to fight under the ownership of the small Malaysian carmaker Proton, it has since been sold in China. Geely, who has a mouth that writes big checks and an ass that can charge them in full.
Lotus has explained that the two SUVs and the sedan will all drive the same new modular platform “Lotus Premium”, which can be stretched between axles between 114 and 122 inches and contain batteries of up to 120 kWh. Lotus claims that this new platform is compatible with a high speed load of 800 volts and that you can opt for each of these vehicles to make a time of 0 to 60 seconds of three seconds. It’s pretty easy to guess that here Lotus is aiming directly at Porsche, with the larger of the two SUVs heading for the Cayenne Coupe and the smaller one going to hit the upcoming Macan EV.
The new Lotus plant that will open in Wuhan later this year is a massive facility compared to the company’s current structures in Hethel. The new plant is able to stretch to build up to 150,000 cars a year, that is, more cars of what Lotus has never sold in its entire history, which began in 1948. Obviously, Geely wants to grow the Lotus brand in annual vehicle sales to match its historically significant nameplate. Collect the chips from these 70 years of history car victories to own won by Lotus for sale SUV and sedans not the worst idea. It worked for Porsche 15 years ago.
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Next to the plant will be a new Lotus Technology headquarters, which will open in 2024 and resemble the previous representation. The installation began off the ground in August and is intended to boost the company’s electrical understanding. The center will be used to develop batteries, power management systems, electric motors, control units and more. China is doing everything in terms of electricity, so it makes sense that Lotus would like to be in the mix, where all the action is.
Hethel’s British will continue to be responsible for building the company’s low-volume sports cars, such as the Evija electric hypercar, the nearby Emira, and presumably the currently unnamed one.Type 136 ‘ an electric sports car has been announced today. Very little is known about the future of the Lotus brand, but it sure looks like it will be electric and “Made In China”.