NedaSay

The engine spec sheet of the Emira GT4 looks very close to production spec compared to the Evora GT4 of old... They have just unlocked the torque limiter and 7200 rpm red line. is interesting the 400bhp max are definitely "regulations" limited

It would not be illogical... Brabus showed what could be done with that engine and a simple ECU remap. Then again the V6 is capable of producing silly power numbers and Lotus has just showed that they are able to get beyond the physical limitation of the BG6 gearbox with the Radford project... Emira GT5XX is not impossible.

Come to think of the parallels between Lotus under DB versus JMG, PP and MW. is the absence of the Lotus brand in high profile Motorsport program. while DB got Lotus involved in LM24 GT and LMP1, Indy 500, Formula 1... JMG did not run any program, nor did PP and MW only did a bit of it with Extreme E and Lotus Engineering for just a season.

Damn it this is exactly what i was thinking... The big difference is this time the CEO has the means to actually do what Dany promised and is way less showy. But the parallel is unavoidable.

The re-calibration of the brand is in progress. It is probably their most cohesive brand video ever, The Roundel has lost its green though...

In the early Emira photos... The bhp number displayed was 481hp. I don't think it was a mistake, Lotus can get these number either with The V6 or the i4. The Emira GT4XX is also going to be way lighter, however it is still some time away into the future, don't hold your breath.

So if the teaser are true there is a Emira GT480 in the wing... This would give the 718 GT4-RS some bone to chew on.

That is because it is.

Ok this is nice. But where is the Emira GT4?!

In the Geely group, this segment is assigned to premium brands Polestar and Volvo. Lotus is positioned higher. Lotus is hunting the Porsche hence the decision to come up with a Taycan competitor. Besides margin on upper echelon cars are much more interesting and Lotus needs each car they make to generate substantial margins...

Lotus Evija in Forza Horizon 1.95 sec 0 to 60 mph

Not really surprising... Lotus has generously geared Hethel for future production and more capacity is still to come with the continuous refurbishment of the historical buildings. The tech they will use for the future sport car is specific enough. Dieppe is also an old factory that will need refurbishment in order to produce the future cars of the brand. if the sport car is Lotus engineered the SUV will be Renault Group engineered (as of now) on a completely different platform and with different assembly process. It is not illogical that both sport car and SUV won't be able to share production line. Beside Dieppe is supposed to become Renault Group AMG's... the place where hot Renaults will be fettled with so they need a shop to finish putting the new Alpine 5 together and hot version of Renault Megane. In the meantime Hethel will be able to assemble the electric Alpine sportcar and future Lotus sport cars on one single production line. The more business for Lotus the merrier, they probably want a few more high profile customers willing to have a public relationship.

This is a tricky one. On a normal year I would say yes and it would not be too much of a hassle, but since covid year one, the year of the big car rental flood.... Car rentals don't have enough car to go around anymore. And If you can cross the border, no problem with the car rental if you pay the out of this world extra waiver that is. Car rental offices are more hesitant to let their car go stateside because, Covid not permitting, the car may be stuck stateside. Hertz used to do it I think they now want the car return to an airport in country. Still Entreprise and Alamo do do it. But you may be better of with a smaller player sometime, which would require you to pick your car up downtown Mtl to drop it at Boston airport. The real question being, are local car rentals offices willing to play ball with the idea. Best of luck.

When you say soon... We would need to know how soon, a few weeks or s few days?

Lotus finds a buyer for anodizing business https://www.pesmedia.com/bcw-takes-over-anodising-process-for-lotus-cars

Can we call this a lazy render?! Reuse Eletre key marker, check . Do not look at the teaser provided by the brand for the upcoming models, check! Give the render the hood of an ICE luxobarge check.

Lotus said the car is an alloy body and chassis, there's probably with ultra high strength steel around the battery cell. The BMW is also loaded with their carbon core technology, they tried to contain the weight and I think they did at 2.4t versus 2.2.t for an Urus and 2.35t to 2.65t for a Bentayga. 2.6t for a Model X . Type 132 has a lot of holes and negative surface everywhere, if Lotus managed to shave weight they probably did by the use of of porosity and negative surface, beside Type 132 is not as tall as the BMW and there's a lot of Carbon fiber front and back which should be lighter than plastic but will prove costly in case of a front impact. Their goal is to get as close as possible to 2t, but at 2.1 or 2.2t it would still be the lightest in its ESUV class by at least 200kg and it is competitive with ICE SUV in this class weight wise, even the nearly 50cm shorter I-Pace is 2.2t and the I-Pace is a thing of beauty style wise and if compared with I-Pace 90kWh battery pack, Eletre is 10kWh bigger so yes if they managed to contain the weight. They will have made the lightest ESUV in its class by a mile Should we get an option that remove all lidar camera it will be even lighter. Within the group The Eletre not so distant cousin the Zeekr 001 weighs in at 2.35t. Now when it comes to visual perception it looks lightweight compared to other SUV and ESUV and in terms of Driving perception well it is still going to be developed by Gavan Kershaw and his colleagues so for a 2.1m wide and 5.1m long it should still feel nimbleish. And now back to daydreaming...

My neighbours down south tend to segment according to gross vehicle weight. Over people do it on price. A DS9 is as 4,93m long, yet it has been benchmarked on the Audi A4 and not the A6 or A8 which are closer in size, price wise it under cuts the Audi as it was intended to. it just doesn't have that luxury feel an A8 would have despite being about as long. It doesn't have the power either with a 4cyl coming as standard and 4cyl hybrid at the top end. The I-Pace was benchmarked on the Macan not Cayenne. in terms of size it seats in the middle, in terms of how roomy it is, it beats the Maccan solidly but in terms of price, it is very close to a Macan - where i leave - all the while being an ESUV. it is a Jaguar so it is premium and it has been compared to other premium SUVs but if it has been compared at the very beginning to X5 and Cayenne at the beginning, it was then compared to GLE, iX3 or even XC40 Recharge, because on price they are closerish, and the comparison to them is a lot more favorable. And before we know it Eletre gets an award:

Here is the wikipedia link: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Car_classification but here you go A-Segment = minicompact (it's an oxymoron I know) vehicle = japanese kei cars B segment = subcompact vehicle = Mini Cooper, Toyota Aygo C segment = compact vehicle = Honda Civic, Peugeot 308 D-segment = family vehicle = Ford Mondeo, Mercedes C class, BMW 3 series E-segment = executive class vehicule = Mecedes E-Class and , Audi A6 and F-segment = luxury vehicle = S-Class A8, Quattroporte J-segment= SUV and light pick Up trucks in the US. You will notice that technically all vehicles in the list I put out there should be in the J segment which was created for SUVs but it has been unceremoniously dropped because in the US car makers don't make cars anymore or at least not seriously.... Ford only manufactures the mustang in North America, as of this year (focus and Fiestas are imported) Chrysler only makes the obsolete 300 and Pacifica MPV, Dodge only makes Chargers (aka the cop car), GM produces Volt and Bolt and Cadillac produces the CT something or other, but the Ford F150 sales dwarfs all the car I just mentioned combined. So... yeah, they have given up on making cars that are not highriding, it can be an SUV or a truck but no longer a car.

I Believe that in Europe, the Eletre is the third E segment ESUV launched, only the BMW iX and Tesla Model X exist in the segment as of now. Many are going to come out in the very near future. China has a Nio ES8 which is not imported and a bunch of others like the Zeekr 001 which is more of a station wagon crossover. The Lotus Eletre will compete in the same realm as the these ESUVs and ICE SUVs Lotus will not have the same goals has Tesla, BMW and Mercedes who will want to sell by the hundreds of thousands but Lotus will still need to find buyers in the tens of thousands to really get what they want/ need. There are more ESUV on the more compact D-segment : Tesla Model Y, Jaguar I-Pace, Kia Niro, Hyundai Kona, Volvo XC40 and C40, Mazda MX-30 VW ID4; In the US there's also the Ford Mustang Mach-E the subcompact Chevy Bolt

Another Eletre competitor will be introduced shortly, Mercedes is about to present the EQS SUV, their E segment flagship SUV. As opposed to all other MB products using the EQ moniker, this SUV will use a bespoke EV architecture, they are not dropping and EV powerunit in an existing Body, they have built a brand new vehicle architecture. and it shows inside... ...and out not that we can see much at the time being, but clearly there's no engine below that very short bonnet EQ SUV S is supposed to be good for 400mi WLTP as is the EQS Saloon. The name is a bit confusing but just like BMW with the I series or Audi with the E-Tron these branding are only going to be a temporary, until the entire range of Mercedes vehicles switch to electric. Being an E segment this EQSUV should compete head to head with the BMW iX and de facto will be another option for people who put the Eletre in their short list for Luxo barge with hiking boots.

Carbon superstructure maybe... Not that it should add 60k to the price but yeah... BMW needs a new design team to try and blend EV and the brand key stylistic traits because sometimes before or after Chris Bangle came and left they lost the plot.

Other thing going for Lotus, has much as Porsche design is very codified and they tend to design their EV's (Taycan) as they would design their ICEVs. I think that Lotus can play with their design a lot more cause if you ask people what a Lotus should look like, other than small and light people will not have much to say, meanwhile should you ask the same question about a Porsche, people will say a 911 Carrera. It is very much set in stone Lotus doesn't have that problem and as a result their design teams have a lot of free reigns to express themselves within the confine of the newly named Carved by air and also cab forward concepts.

You forgot one key factor, Eletre looks much better. And based on Harry's comments it appears that in terms of ergonomics Lotus have done their homework. if that ugly thing gets over 350miles of range being 2.6t and looking like a freaking fridge, a sleek one but a fridge nonethess, I would expect the Eletre, being all carved by air, to do better because it should offer even less wind resistance and if they are to make their target, about half a ton lighter.

The target volume is close to but not necessarily 50k in year one. the Factory has flexible capacity up to 150k+ per annum. But that is when the trio of cars is out and about. Type 134 is supposed to be the biggest seller of the trio. Eletre is the Halo product, production target was anywhere between 25k and 60k vehicles because it does depend in part on the uptake in China. And the spec level people opt for. Geely does hope they will be able to go straight to the top over there. Since the cars are made locally there are less taxes on it. But they have kept things a bit vague in the vision 80 business plan, besides when I last read it ... Lotus was still supposed to share its factory with other premium brands of the group. The factory has been designated as exclusive to Lotus, just like Zeekr and Polestar got their own exclusive factory. The Wuhan factory won't build vehicles for other brands of the group, at least not for now. It is part of the Geely's play to raise equity out of and for Lotus Technology. They are affecting a lot of tangible assets to their newest unit: factory, test track facility, HQ, R&D centres in The UK (LTCC) in Germany (LTIC) + access to offices on Geely campus in Gothenburg (CEVT). And of course, all is done under the oversight of Lotus HQ (Hethel) and ZGH (Shanghai). They have deemed this strategy the right one to get relatively fast positive return on investment, and it sort of Limits exposure for ZGH which is already quite over leveraged.