Under the general trend of electrification, it seems that no car company can "stand alone".
In 2019, Lotus, the world's legendary sports car and racing manufacturer who has won 7 F1 constructors' championships and 9 Le Mans Grand Prix championships, released its first pure electric supercar Evija.
The Evija is known as the most powerful production car, with four motors, 2000 hp, 1700 Nm, 0-100 km/h acceleration in 3 seconds, and a top speed of 320 km/h... However, the global limit of 130 units, the domestic limit of 5 units, and the price of up to 21.88 million are destined to be another "toy" for the rich whose collection value is greater than the driving significance.
However, behind this kind of muscle-show behavior is the determination of Lotus to electrify after being acquired by Geely. On June 23, 2017, Zhejiang Geely Holding Group signed a definitive agreement with Drb-HICOM Group malaysia to acquire 49.9% of THE SHARES OF PROTON, a subsidiary of DRB-HICOM, and a 51% stake in lotus, a luxury sports car brand.
This legendary brand, which was once called the world's three major sports cars along with Ferrari and Porsche, was changed several times after the death of its founder Chapman, from Toyota to GM, and then from an Italian businessman to the Malaysian DRB-HICOM Group, and finally came to China.
The Evija, a sports car of more than 20 million, is just the beginning of Lotus's electrification. On March 30, Lotus released its first pure electric SUV in London, the Eletre, a new car based on the EPA platform and positioned as a medium and large SUV.
In addition to the Geely factor, this car will also be a "domestic car". It is reported that Eletre will be put into operation at the Luster Technology Smart Factory in Wuhan within the year, and it is expected to start delivery in China, Europe and other markets in 2023.
So, can this Eletre really take on the responsibility of electrification and intelligence of Lotus?
1. Accelerate 2.95 seconds from 100 km/h, comparable to McLaren 675 LT
Lotus, which has sports cars and racing genes, should worry about performance at the last thing to worry about.
Eletre is based on Lotus's independently developed EPA edge evolution architecture, which simply means that Lotus wants to "democratize" racing. Previously, Lotus pioneered the concept of "track-level intelligent driving" in the industry, with the goal of winning the F1 championship in the next decade, with the assistance of intelligent driving, as long as you can get a driver's license.
To win F1, fast is a must.
Generally speaking, the posture of the fast car is relatively low, and the body is relatively small. However, the Eletre is 5103× 2019×1630mm, and the wheelbase is 3019mm, which is the overall size of the Porsche Cayenne E-Hybrid and close to the Lamborghini SUV Urus.
It is such a medium and large SUV that is 5 meters long and 2 meters wide, lotus still accelerates the Eletre's 100 kilometers to 2.95 seconds. Keep in mind the same size Lamborghini SUV Urus, a 4.0-liter V8 twin-turbo engine with 650 hp, 850 Nm, and 3.6 seconds to accelerate from standstill to 100 km/h. Porsche Cayenne E-Hybrid's 100-00-to-100-0s acceleration takes 5.6 seconds.
The Eletre's 2.95 seconds is similar to the McLaren 675LT, which uses a twin-turbo V8 engine, carbon fiber chassis and engine compartment, and accelerates to 2.9 seconds from 100 kilometers.
This result is also very close to the 2.1 seconds and 2.6 seconds of the Tesla Model S/X Plaid version. In addition to the power, Eletre has also made efforts in aerodynamics and body lightweight, such as lowering the body posture, multiple diversion holes through the body, hidden door handles and streaming mirror design, bringing lower wind resistance to the vehicle. The use of carbon fiber and aluminum, as well as an active electric rear spoiler that can generate up to 116 kg of downforce, are the "heroes" of Eletre's 100 km/h acceleration into the 2-second club.
Second, 4 lidar, intelligent configuration is quite fierce
As mentioned earlier, the concept proposed by Lotus is "track-level intelligent driving", that is, in addition to being fast, it must be more intelligent, which is also one of the most important factors in the general trend of electrification.
In general, the degree of intelligence of electric vehicles depends on the sensors and the car machine, corresponding to whether the collected information is more comprehensive and whether the information processing is fast and accurate. Therefore, in order to be more intelligent, the quantity and quality of sensors, as well as the ability of the car machine and chip, are crucial.
In terms of intelligence, the more important thing is the ability to assist driving, in addition to Tesla's resolute use of pure visual solutions, most new energy vehicle companies will use lidar to improve the ability to assist driving, because lidar has high accuracy and is not easily affected by the weather.
However, the price of lidar is not cheap, the average model has a lidar is already very good, and lotus Eletre is equipped with 4 flip-over 128-line lidar, located above the front windshield, above the left and right front wheel arches and above the rear row.
To know that the ideal L9 that has not yet been released, is recently officially breaking the information on the configuration, the recently revealed information shows that the self-developed flagship intelligent driving system - ideal AD Max, is equipped with a 128-line lidar. In addition to the 4 lidars, lotus Eletre has 7 SMP cameras, 6 millimeter wave radars, 4 2MP surround view cameras, 12 ultrasonic radars and an interior camera, for a total of 34 driver assistance sensors.
The received sensor data also needs to be processed by the system, which tests the ability of the car machine. At present, the 8155 chip is known as the ceiling of the car-level chip, lotus directly installed two in the Eletre, the comprehensive computing power is as high as 508Tops, 2.2 GFLOPS, and the power consumption is only 45 watts. In addition, it also supports super image rendering, support for 3D images and other functions.
In terms of other technology configurations, Eletre is equipped with 5 screens in the car, including two 12.6-inch monitors for the main/co-pilot, a 15.1-inch OLED central control touch screen, a 29-inch AR HUD display and a 9-inch control panel at the rear, with two streaming mirrors. The new car is also equipped with a sound system from british gem brand KEF, with 15 speakers, creating the ultimate listening experience.
According to the previously announced plan, by 2026, Lotus will launch four new models, the first is the "Eletre" codenamed Type 132, the second is the electric four-door coupe codenamed Type 133 to be launched next year, the new pure electric model codenamed Type 134 to be launched in 2025 and the new pure electric sports car codenamed Type 135 to be launched in 2026.
The price of Eletre has not yet been announced, and while it is certainly more accessible than Evija, it is still not affordable for most people. However, for Geely, it will undoubtedly make the price segment of the product more comprehensive. You know, after Geely took over, Volvo, which once gradually faded from the public eye, now has the qualification to compete with the BBA. And Eletre's mission may be to break the wrist with Porsche.