Lotus Eletre

[910Esprit]

Looks more like a cartoon Grrrrr to me!

[Barrykearley]

Almost a ooooh

[NedaSay]

Autocar's vision of Lotus SUV feels much more like it to me and from today's website tidbits:

 

Quote

Jean-Marc Gales doesn’t think a hybrid powertrain is appropriate for the company’s sports cars because the batteries run down too quickly in high-performance driving and add too much dead weight.

However, a hybrid system with a very small internal combustion engine and quickly chargeable batteries is on the agenda for the company’s upcoming SUV, which will be designed for such a powertrain from its inception.

It’ll be on sale, at first exclusively in China, from 2020.

 

[Mark Blanchard]

Looks like a Hyundai or Kia.  It looks like an SUV also ran, on the coat tales of Bentley.  Please Lotus, put a stop to this madness, you don't do off roaders, you do the best handling road cars in the world.

[Jacques]

I fully second that of Mark B.

 

Cheers,

Jacques.

[NedaSay]

Well this is only a rendering...

If that SUV allows the company to make more sport cars the way the Cayenne helped the Boxster, Cayman 911 and 918...  

[Arregueti]

(Daydreaming) And if they could use the platform to develop a mid-sized, front engined, four door, four seater GT/Sport Sedan...

[theelanman]

""It’ll be on sale, at first exclusively in China, from 2020...................""

and probably built by them to...so it'll only last a couple of years (if youre lucky) ......by which time they'll have decided not to ship it to us......

On 19 August 2015 7:17:17 pm, Arregueti said:

(Daydreaming) And if they could use the platform to develop a mid-sized, front engined, four door, four seater GT/Sport Sedan...

don't need a new platform...they already have one...its called a proton...... 

[ChrisJ]

I'm all for a proper 4-seater Lotus, but I'm not sure that I'd want one if it looked like that. The article states that "The new Lotus is expected to be a fairly low-riding model", this one isn't.

Whatever happened to this

Quote

Daily Telegraph from 28 June

Gales continued: "Our car will be very low for an SUV and will look a bit like a 3-Eleven [the track-focused sports car that Lotus unveiled at Goodwood] from the front. The side will be a bit like the Elite from 1974."

[theelanman]

On 19 August 2015 8:08:45 pm, ChrisJ said:

I'm all for a proper 4-seater Lotus, but I'm not sure that I'd want one if it looked like that. The article states that "The new Lotus is expected to be a fairly low-riding model", this one isn't.

Whatever happened to this

they'll be bringing back the 'dickie seat' next........

[Bravo73]

On 19 August 2015 8:10:58 am, Mark B said:

Looks like a Hyundai or Kia.  It looks like an SUV also ran, on the coat tales of Bentley.  Please Lotus, put a stop to this madness, you don't do off roaders, you do the best handling road cars in the world.

It's an Autocar render. It has no basis in actual reality.

 

On 19 August 2015 9:30:13 am, NedaSay said:

Well this is only a rendering...

Exactly. Other than having 4 wheels, the final Lotus SUV won't look anything like this. It is just Autocar's version of 'click bait'.

[Barrykearley]

Imagine - set the scene ........

A black lotus taxi....... A true British car all over London.

Come on lotus - it's a good market - go for it

[Bibs]

Lotus did develop the hydrogen powered taxis used during the London Olympics. 

 

http://www.lotuscars.com/engineering/case-study-hydrogen-fuel-cell-taxi

[Barrykearley]

My god - live and learn...... That'll teach me for making dumb suggestions!!!

[swindon_alan]

I find it interesting how much angst the topic generates among Lotus enthusiasts.

If it generates income to fund - for example - a new generation of Esprit supercar in the traditional format, then why am I bothered? I had a run of the mill Astra with Lotus designed suspension. Lotus have input to so many brands around the world on a hell of a lot of production cars. It is motor vehicle engineering excellence - that is what they have always done and will continue to do hopefully. Surely it's just a small step to package that up in one of their own designs? Surely that should be a condensation of brilliance? I really don't care if it is in the form of an SUV, a crossover, a compact, a family drone mobile. They would all be the best of the type available.

In my mind I want them to do it. Thinking it should be below them as a marque is just plain snobbery. Sorry!

[NedaSay]

I do think that the SUV is the best vehicle that can help the company in a meaningful way...

A new coupe being front engined or mid engined will require what current cars need without generating significantly more income to the company.  Sure they don't have the supercar (aka Esprit) and the hypercar (P1, La Ferrari, 918...)  or the true Grand Tourer (Vanquish, F12...)  But I believe that with Elise, Exige and Evora, Lotus has a lot of base covered.  

Tiny hatchbacks and midsized sports sedans: there is no money to be made unless you can mass produced them and the same can be said about all other regular cars...

Sportscar specialist supersedans : Rapide, Quattroporte, Panamera*... are not selling in mega numbers and do face the Germans ubersedans... Truly a hornet nest with sales volume getting ever so slightly smaller year after year, so helping this car helping the company is unlikely. Talk to any Aston person and they'll tell you that the rapide is not quite the success they expected, the Panamera does sell, yes, but have you paid attention to Cayenne sales numbers, and the truth on the matter is : nobody and I mean nobody "needs" freakin" a Cayenne and yet so many want it, desire it!!! lust after it!!!   

So here enters  the SUV/Crossover. Still a new playground for carmarkers. Porsche has made billions with it. Audi has made even more money with the Q vehicles, the same can be said about BMW X softroaders and Range Rover is selling 2.5 to 3 times the number of Jaguar (at least until the XE starts pulling its weight) thanks to the Evoque. Every generalist now has at least one highrider in its range, they sell like hotcakes... 

Lotus can tune the suspension of any vehicle better than most if not all automaker out there... So I believe they can engineer the ideal handling sports crossover, Goldstar is reported to invest 1.7 billion USD in the project. Proton also has a lot riding on it and DRB is calling all the shots now and they've proven a lot more on top of things.So I want to believe that this vaporware is going to transform into something a lot more tangible soon.     

And the most interesting bit of the autocar "report" is the hybrid package protection that seem to indicate that Lotus could use their own "range extender" technology which Lotus Engineering developed and which was to be produced by Fagor Ederlan. So far this engine still has to find its first client even if it has been duly homologated,I think. And I think it would be great if Lotus was to use its own tech on their own cars.  

[NedaSay]

I stumbled on that Autobild.de rendering, during a procrastination session....

[Escape]

Good thing it's only a rendering without much credibility. It looks like a Kia impersonating a Macan.

[Al]

There are bits of the front that are Evoque if you know one intimately, like the area round the Front Fog, front ahead of wheel tab, front wing & wing mirror is almost a copy and paste.  As an Evoque owning family (SWMBO's) and therefore a potential buyer unlike a lot who will deride it no matter how good or bad it is I do not dislike what I see I have to say.

[auRouge]

4 hours ago, NedaSay said:

I stumbled on that Autobild.de rendering, during a procrastination session....

If it was well built and comes with a decent manufacturers extendable warranty id buy one to replace xc60... 

These cars are the new way of transporting sprogs.. Why not do it in something you like?

Interesting times!

[Escape]

1 hour ago, Al. said:

There are bits of the front that are Evoque if you know one intimately, like the area round the Front Fog, front ahead of wheel tab, front wing & wing mirror is almost a copy and paste.  As an Evoque owning family (SWMBO's) and therefore a potential buyer unlike a lot who will deride it no matter how good or bad it is I do not dislike what I see I have to say.

I did see some similarities with the Evoque, but couldn't quite put my finger on it, unlike you. I must say I like the look of the Evoque a lot more, the big gaping mouth (like a lot of cars have these days) puts me off on this rendering.

[Al]

I'd agree I'm not a lover of the big gaping mouth either.  Looks a bit Volvo VX 60/90 or something copy I'd say by whoever dreamt up this render.  

Big difference between "do not not dislike" and "like" off course!  Similar with front of the S1 Evora.  I don't dislike it, but never really liked it either and always thought worst aspect to look at.  However the GTE was an instant "like" for me whereas the 400 less so. 

[auRouge]

Looks like a Evoque/Macan blend to me.

[NedaSay]

New render very 3Eleven and somewhat "japanese maccan"

[Frickin_idiot]

I'm not a suv fan generally but that does look good.