Lotus claims it will be first pure EV sports car brand
British-Chinese sports car specialists Lotus is confident it will win the race to become the first mainstream sports car manufacturer to offer an all-electric product range.
While the ICE-powered Emira is only now going into production, the company insists it will never again green-light anything other than an electric vehicle for production.
But with the Emira destined to stay in production until the second half of the 2020s it’s got a bunch of years to run before it expires and Lotus goes truly emissions free.
That hasn’t stopped Lotus being bullish in a press release issued this week, saying its decision means it will be the first “established sports car maker in the world to have a fully electric product range”.
At this point it’s a hard claim to argue with. Among Lotus’ sports car rivals, only Maserati has set a clear deadline for the end of ICE in 2030.
German giant Porsche is pushing hard on EVs, with the Taycan already on sale and the next Macan SUV set to go electric. Porsche has also committed to transitioning the two-door 718 Boxster and Cayman sports cars to electric by mid-decade.
Of course, Lotus didn’t put an end date on Emira and it also said its EV commitment applied to “mainstream” models. That suggests motorsport specials and fossil fuel limited editions may still roll out later.
The Lotus promise has been made as part of a four-point Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) charter.
It now forms a part of Lotus’ Vision80 strategy for transformation of the business leading up to its 80th anniversary in 2028.
The other commitments deal with becoming a certified net-zero business, uniting “Lotus colleagues” behind global growth and inspiring the next generation through education and outreach.
As worthy as all that is, it’s the plans for the electric cars that are the really interesting bit for us.
The Emira is going into production to replace three Lotus petrol mainstays, the Exige, Elise and Evora.
The first electric Lotus was the Evija hypercar that bowed in 2019 and starts customer deliveries in 2022.
It will be followed by the Eletre hyper-SUV (pictured top), which has been shown off this year, and goes on-sale in late 2022.
It will be the first Lotus to be built at the company’s new technical centre in Wuhan China.
Three more EVs will launch in the next four years – a four-door sports sedan (the Type 133, which launches in 2023) to rival the Porsche Taycan, a second SUV (Type 134, in 2025) and a lightweight next-generation sports car (Type 135, in 2026), which Renault sportscar brand Alpine is also developing a version of.
Other brands that have committed to go all-electric include:
2025: Genesis, Jaguar
2027: Alfa Romeo, Buick
2028: Chrysler
2030: Bentley, Cupra, Fiat, Maserati, Mercedes-Benz, Mini, Rolls-Royce, Volvo
2033: Audi
2035: Cadillac, Lexus
2040: Honda, Hyundai, Kia, Volkswagen
