2024 Lotus Eletre R Quick Spin: Not Your Traditional Lotus
You’re forgiven if the SUV you see here confuses you a bit. Yes, it’s a Lotus, and yes, it’s an electric SUV. The British brand made famous by its lightweight, diminutive two-seat sports cars — which have been around since the middle of the last century — is about to undergo a massive rebirth, transforming into something it’s never been before: A luxury brand with global reach and mass appeal. It starts with this, the new 2024 Eletre all-electric “hyper-SUV.” Available with four or five seats (depending on how you spec the backseat), it’s the first step in Lotus’ new mission to become a 100% electric, high-performance luxury brand under the ownership of Chinese automaking giant Geely. We recently took a brief spin in a new Eletre SUV in metro Detroit, wondering if this change of heart will do for Lotus what building SUVs has done for Porsche.
Jumping on the SUV Bandwagon
So why an SUV? Well, that’s what people are buying these days — more than any other type of vehicle. Two-seat sports cars are great, and Lotus held out longer than many of its competitors in offering just those to its buyers, but making only small sports cars just isn’t sustainable anymore. Lotus’ parent company Geely also owns Volvo, Polestar, and a few other brands you likely haven’t heard of (Zeekr, Lynk & Co., Proton, etc.), giving it the opportunity to expand Lotus’ footprint through platform and technology sharing. And hey, adopting SUVs worked for Porsche; the popularity (and profits) of the Cayenne and Macan has allowed for the continuation and development of the 911, 718 Boxster, and the rest of the brand’s sports cars.
So what has Lotus created in the Eletre? My brief drive and exposure to this new SUV showed it to be an electric powerhouse, with comfort, performance, luxurious materials, and thoughtful design throughout. It is completely unlike anything Lotus has produced to date.
Compared with contemporary offerings like the Mercedes-Benz EQS and BMW iX, the Eletre feels fully competitive and even superior in several areas, with performance that honors the Lotus nameplate while moving the brand in a very new direction for the 21st century. How does the Eletre do this?
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A New Look
I’m not sure there is a true Lotus style, which makes laying eyes on the Eletre for the first time less of a shock than it might otherwise be. There’s no dissonance in your brain saying “this doesn’t look right.” You’re left to simply marvel at the scoops, strakes, folds and streaks that combine for an aerodynamic drag coefficient of just 0.26, Lotus says. That’s exceptionally slippery for an SUV, and Lotus achieved it via a lot of “flow-through” design elements and active flaps. Despite its fastback shape, the Eletre actually has decent outward visibility. Overall, the look is fresh, interesting and not at all derivative of any other automaker. It’s not bizarre, like the BMW iX, nor is it milquetoast, like the Mercedes-Benz EQS and EQE SUVs. Yet it’s definitely a more performance-oriented look than the Rivian R1S’ more traditional two-box shape. If anything, it resembles the more aggressive looks of a Kia EV6, which is no bad thing at all.
The Performance Goods
The Eletre SUV will come in three versions: base, Eletre S, and a high-performance Eletre R, which is what we drove. All versions pack a 112-kilowatt-hour lithium-ion battery pack, which is big for a vehicle this size. It’s an 800-volt system and has the ability to DC fast charge at 350 kilowatts. Lotus says the battery can go from 10-80% in 20 minutes. It also has a standard 22-kW onboard charger, so if you have a home Level 2 charger on a big enough circuit (and the charger itself can handle that much power), the Eletre’s big battery can fully recharge at home in less than six hours, which is excellent.
What that big battery and this Lotus’ dual-motor drivetrain enables the Eletre R to do is race from 0-62 mph in 3 seconds flat, according to Lotus. That’s because the dual-motor all-wheel-drive setup produces 905 horsepower and 727 pounds-feet of torque, and the R features a unique two-speed transmission on the rear drive unit that aids that blistering acceleration. The base Eletre and Eletre S, meanwhile, make 603 hp and 524 pounds-feet of torque, and both are good for a 0-62 mph time of 4.5 seconds, which is still no slouch.
Frankly, this SUV needs all that power. Its biggest departure from a traditional Lotus might not be its powertrain or body style, but rather its mass: The Eletre R weighs a whopping 5,820 pounds thanks to its massive battery pack. There’s no lightness in this design, and lightness and minimalism has always been a hallmark of Lotus engineering; it’s what allows its vehicles to be thrilling even with their smaller, less-powerful engines — because they didn’t weigh anything. With this move to electrified powertrains, that’s over.
Behind the Wheel
Once you’re planted into the Eletre’s bolstered, well-fitting driver’s seat, the power and tuning of this Lotus SUV’s chassis make up for the lack of lightness. Acceleration in the Eletre R is as explosive as you’d expect a 905-hp SUV’s to be, especially when employing one of its myriad drive modes. The standard mode is Tour, with Range, Sport, Off-Road, Individual, and Track modes also available. Tour’s great for around-town driving, and Sport makes things more aggressive. There’s an adjustable regenerative-braking system with two settings but no true one-pedal-style driving, like you’d find in a Tesla; the Eletre’s regen system can’t bring it to a full stop. Thankfully, the traditional brakes are powerful, featuring six-piston front calipers. They haul the Eletre R to a stop with strong repeatability and a firm feel.
As for how the Eletre handles, I can’t comment much on that just yet; my hour with the vehicle didn’t involve anything but metro Detroit’s street grid, which meant a lot of straight-line bursts between stop lights and some slow-speed curves down a couple of park roads — nothing to even slightly test the SUV’s responses. Steering in urban environments is light and boosted, but ride quality is what really impresses. The R features 22-inch wheels and tires, but the adaptive air suspension absorbed things well despite the thin rubber.
The Eletre R’s driving experience is simply excellent, with well-controlled body motions, a nicely tuned ride, and an absolutely silent powertrain; even at full power there’s no whine or gear noise, and there’s not even much in the way of road noise in the cabin. You do get a fair amount of wind noise, but you can pin that one on the frameless door glass; this setup is never a good recipe for keeping the interior quiet. The driving experience makes good on the high-performance promise of the Lotus brand, yet it also provides a strong dose of luxury that’s also in keeping with the high-end premium segment Lotus is targeting.
The Interior Seals It
As wild as the exterior design is, the Eletre’s interior matches it in both design and quality. As is true of a lot of modern EVs, most everything is controlled through a massive central touchscreen. Sadly, this includes the climate-control system, which is never our favorite setup. Unlike some other EVs, however, you also get two smaller strips of screen, one in front of the driver and one for the front passenger. The driver’s screen displays essentials like speed and drive mode, while the passenger screen displays ancillary information. These are augmented by a massive 29-inch color head-up display that repeats everything important. The only odd thing about the interior is the steering wheel, which is a “squircle” instead of a circle, and it feels a bit odd to hold.
It’s not the tech, however, that impresses most — it does what it should and is reasonably well organized, though some of the iconography is a bit small and dim — but it’s the Eletre’s interior materials and design that really shine. Everything in the Lotus Eletre R feels top-quality, which is even more impressive given it’s designed with sustainability, recyclability, and eco-friendliness in mind. The solidity of the construction makes it feel more upscale than any of the new Mercedes-EQ models, and there’s nothing really odd in the cabin (which can’t be said of the BMW iX). It blows away anything from Tesla at any price point, and it bests Rivian in terms of quality execution.
It’s even spacious in the Eletre, with plenty of headroom up front and more than adequate legroom in back. Visibility is also better than expected, even to the rear. The beltline is high, but every seating position is excellent. The backseat can have either a two- or three-seat row, with a fixed center console if you opt for just two seats back there Luggage room is also good, which isn’t surprising when you consider the Eletre is not a small SUV; it’s easily on the large end of mid-size.
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Competitive Pricing
Complete pricing of the Eletre is not yet known, and neither is an estimated range on the EPA’s test cycle. What Lotus has said is that a fully loaded Eletre R like my test vehicle will cost about $150,000 when it arrives in 2024. That puts it in Mercedes-Benz EQS SUV territory, but it’s considerably more expensive than a Rivian R1S Quad-Motor. Lesser models will likely be more competitive at the lower end of the price range, but a six-figure price tag is still more likely than not.
Whether or not the market can handle another brand making waves in the high-end EV realm remains to be seen, but Lotus does have the benefit of brand recognition among well-heeled enthusiasts — and the deep pockets of its Chinese owners. The Eletre R certainly delivers on the promise of an upscale, high-performance, decidedly special-feeling SUV. Lotus got this product right; we’ll see if buyers follow.
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