Type 132 - Lotus Eletre

[thebartman]

On 08/11/2021 at 12:49, Bibs said:

I saw a Urus about 30 mins ago. It did sound epic however the sound didn't really match an SUV and seemed pretty out of place but it was huge! Black with green calipers was a mistake though!

Saw one in London - Thursday ....

[Escape]

I think that's just a rebadged VW 😄

[thebartman]

Or maybe a Volvo/Porsche/Kia etc.
I’m not an SUV specialist (obvs) but really  hope the 132 has a clear and distinct identity - the like of which have inspired us all to be Lotus owners.

BTW - is the colour borrowed from Norfolk?

[Ba55uma]

Quite possibly type 132 will be based on this one. 

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zeekr_001

The pictures from the back look similar. Yes, the suspension setup will be lotus derived, the top spec performance numbers look good and I remember seeing a stop watch timer stop at 3.8 in one of the Instagram feed. 

"The top of the trim variant of the 001 has electric motors on both the front and rear axle, putting out a combined output of 536hp and 700Nm of torque and can propel the 001 from 0-100kph in 3.8 sec, speed max over 200 km/h. Zeekr is claiming that the 001 can run on a full charge for up to 700km, and its charging setup will give it 120 km worth of power in just five minutes of charging time"

 

[Bibs]

That's more like the upcoming Type 133 I believe. 

[eUKenGB]

Damn, it's all still so unclear though. The 132 is supposed to an E segment vehicle, which is the same as this Zeekr. The 134 will be D segment, but no idea if that's bigger or smaller than E segment as they are not both size based definitions.

The 133 will be more of a saloon than SUV? Does that fit with this Zeekr? If 700km range is to be believed though… wow.

If only I wasn't so interested, I wouldn't care. 😄

I guess they ran out of interesting visual features as there's been no more teasers for a while.

[exeterjeep]

32 minutes ago, eUKenGB said:

I guess they ran out of interesting visual features as there's been no more teasers for a while.

The teasers seemed to lead up to the autoshow in China, where some lucky people got to see the type 132.

Been none since then, perhaps they will start teasers for the types 133.134.135.135.137.138,139.......

[Barrykearley]

The pics of the 141 are stunning 😍

[yeller77]

Bah, just another Autocar render... 🙄

[mg4lotus]

At the end of the Driven Matt Windle interview he states that there will be another teaser on Friday (today). Not seen it yet.

[mg4lotus]

Checked the podcast again and it was prior to the Guangzhou motor show so not referring to today.

[Il fenomino]

I'm also very interested in the first Lotus EV. Altough this one is probalby too big and expensive for me. It is aimed at the Porsche Cayenne and I'm sure people will buy it. A smaller Polestar 5 is what I am looking forward to. Hopefully with Geely's backing they introduce more tech, like an AR head up display. I don't fancy the Lidar system, but it looks like nearly all chinese cars get one nowadays. 

[Il fenomino]

On 10/12/2021 at 16:48, eUKenGB said:

Damn, it's all still so unclear though. The 132 is supposed to an E segment vehicle, which is the same as this Zeekr. The 134 will be D segment, but no idea if that's bigger or smaller than E segment as they are not both size based definitions.

The 133 will be more of a saloon than SUV? Does that fit with this Zeekr? If 700km range is to be believed though… wow.

If only I wasn't so interested, I wouldn't care. 😄

I guess they ran out of interesting visual features as there's been no more teasers for a while.

You can compare the 132 to a Porsche Cayenne, the 134 to the Macan, the 133 probably to the NIO ET7 or Mercedes EQE.

I'm puzzeled there are no spyshots anywhere. Not from the Nürburgring or other test-tracks. I also lust for more pictures 

[C8RKH]

3 minutes ago, Il fenomino said:

I'm puzzeled there are no spyshots anywhere. Not from the Nürburgring or other test-tracks. I also lust for more pictures

Lotus did a very good job of keeping the Emira out of the limelight until the official launch remember.

[NedaSay]

^^^and they are helped by most of development being made being closed doors and fenced up areas throughout the Geely empire, the great Chinese firewall is at work here.  We know a small contingent of potential Chinese buyers and dealers have seen the car recently, but the NDA they had to sign is probably bulletproof, nothing will leak until they decide the time is right.

Edited December 21, 2021 by NedaSay

[mg4lotus]

Break the NDA and risk being "re-educated". 😱

[Il fenomino]

As I am looking for an EV to buy, I see a lot of lists, of which cars you will be able to buy in 2022. Nearly all the brands are on it. Even the exotic ones. Polestar, NIO or Lucid. But I have never seen the Lotus Type 132 been named in one of those lists. This car is probably going under the radar, if even the car media forgets about it. Lotus should probably offer more pictures to make the car more popular.

[Bibs]

Cars are generally revealed 9-12 months before they land on customers drives. The 132 isn't quite there yet so you'll have to wait until next year

[Il fenomino]

But the car will be available in 2022, right? Because, I'm interested in the Type 133 and they say it will come out in 2023. If it is only "presented" in the year they mentioned, it will probably take an additional year till you have the car in your driveyard.

[Bravo73]

22 hours ago, Il fenomino said:

But the car will be available in 2022, right?

I imagine that is highly unlikely. The Emira is struggling to be available by 2022 and that is effectively already designed and built. 

[exeterjeep]

Hendy indicated to me that they have a small allocation of 132 before the end of 2022. That surprised me as if the 132 is ordered direct via lotus on line, how would they know about what to expect. Unless they are just getting a few demos?  That could change depending on covid/other things. 

In regard to recent car launches, MG announced the extended range Chinese built ZS EV in the UK in October, the first cars in the showroom for test drives etc at the end of November with customer deliveries March/April. First road tests in magazines in mid November. Been in to MG Exeter about a week ago and they have 2 as demos. May be the Chinese built lotus EV's will be on the market somewhat quicker than the Emira, but not as quick as the MG EV.

 

[Il fenomino]

Thank you for the insights. For me that means not to wait with the switch to EV. I will probably buy a small car now and then wait patiently for the Lotus EV's to arrive.

[NedaSay]

The one thing that Lotus will not communicate on is the state of readiness of the vehicle and the factory... They said  the factory was on its way to being fully built when Lotus Technology was launched but effectively the factory was already up and running by the announcement.

The Package of the Type 132 is brand new but effectively most of its components have been proven on other Geely group products, the development has been done under the watchful eye of Group Lotus CEO himself, ever since the acquisition of Lotus was sealed, the skunk team has been on the ground in Shanghai R&D centre since 2018.

There's certainly some product validation to be done but if the chassis and dynamics were vetted early with the prototypes we've seen two year ago, near Hethel, the  bulk of the development has taken place away from prying eyes in China, Sweden and Germany. There's probably some fine tuning on european roads to be done. But the factory has been churning validation prototypes for a while.  Should they unveil in early spring 2022, cars could be made available to the chinese market in the late fall. As they did for Zeekr 001 whose specs are very close. Also, yhey won't have a dozen prototypes running around they will have hundreds if needed, they showed a VP at the chinese autoshow  which could actually be a preseries or 0 model. type 131 and 132 could reach some market at the same time.

[DarrylV8]

Has anyone placed an early deposit, was this with your dealer or direct with Lotus? 

[exeterjeep]

Expressed an interest straight away as soon as the page appeared on the lotus site, but there was no mention of any financial interest, and the dealer did not mention it either.