Lotus has announced a significant update to its business. Since being acquired by Geely with a majority stake, the British automaker Lotus has announced an important electric transition, so now that we know that Lotus’s future is electric: the company has already confirmed that the forthcoming 2022 Emira will be its last new model to have a combustion engine.
Now the automaker known for its sports cars has released some more details about what will be the rapid deployment of the four fully electric models, and two of them are electric SUVs that will follow on from the $2 million Evija hypercar, which it partnered with Renault’s Alpine to create a new electric vehicle.
They’re all being developed under what is described as the Vision80 plan, which concludes in time for Lotus’s 80th anniversary in 2028. To speed its move into electrification, Lotus is also creating a new subsidiary, Lotus Technology, which will be based in Wuhan, China. This will work on the future models and will also have investment from Li Bin, founder of Chinese automaker Nio.
But the real headline-grabbing news is the new lineup of electric vehicles that they plan to build at that factory.
They announced four new electric vehicles:
- In 2022, Lotus will debut an E-segment SUV codenamed Type 132.
- In 2023, Lotus plan to launch an E-segment four-door coupe, Type 133.
- In 2025, Lotus will follow with the Type 134, a new D-segment SUV.
- In 2026, Lotus will launch an all-new electric sports car, Type 135.
Lotus had already announced that it was going all-electric under Geely, but this is an even bigger change with the automaker known for its sports and supercars.
The company is now going to produce SUVs and four-door vehicles.
Lotus shared some details about the new electric vehicle platform that is going to support this new electric lineup:
The development of the brand’s new premium lifestyle vehicles will take place on the Lotus Premium architecture, one of the four new vehicle platforms announced at the Driving Tomorrow global strategy conference in April. The Premium architecture supports a wheelbase range from 2,889mm-3,100mm and could be further expanded in the future. It supports the development of all types of passenger vehicles from C+ to E segments. Using 92-120kWh batteries, it is compatible with the industry’s most advanced 800-volt high-speed EV charging system. Products developed on this platform will be capable of 0-100km/h acceleration in under three seconds.
The automaker will keep using its two factories in the UK, but the new Wuhan facility will significantly increase its production capacity to 150,000 vehicles per year.
With the launch of Lotus’s first new electric vehicle next year, we expect to see a prototype soon.
