Type 130 - Lotus Evija

[Advantage 856]

 From Pistonheads: someone has called out the usual PH anti-Lotus negativity:

 

PH'er Otolith:  "Really, all the negativity round here, and it could be avoided with one small styling change."

[au-yt 232 1 Vehicles]

Just Porsche guys sour grapes, to me there is real arrogance withing the Porsche and Ferrari camps. I know I've been in both.

 

[ramjet 943]

9 hours ago, C8RKH said:

I absolutely loved this. Nice one Greg!

I don't understand why you would?

A twin exhaust on a vehicle that does not have an engine?

Satire?

[C8RKH 4,244 2 Vehicles]

Yes, satire, or more commonly known as taking the piss

[ramjet 943]

Aha! You of him? Or him of Lotus?

I just watched the unveiling video. I have to admit it as well, it is one gorgeous looking vehicle.

[C8RKH 4,244 2 Vehicles]

Nope. Him of EV's....  I think the humour was well and truly lost on you. Never mind....

[ramjet 943]

Yup. I will go to my grave not understanding the joke.

[auRouge 432 1 Vehicles]

On 19/07/2019 at 11:20, Simon Bateman said:

, it seems to me that It's a road car, that also benefits from enough aero and track knowhow, so as to be very very effective on the track as well.

and best yet... it wont get black flagged for noise 

what a fantastic start for Geely. a genuine Ferrari competitor / beater. the name Lotus properly resurrected from the hay days of F1 successes. 

cant wait to see what the new Elise, Exige and Evora’s will be like! the standards and investment are now no question where they deserve to be.

hats off to HetheL, exciting times for Lotus and all its fans.

 

[USAndretti42 228 1 Vehicles]

I read that the electric motors are coming from Integral Powertrain.  I worked there up to a year ago and didn't know anything about that.  I knew they had visited Lotus but they visit, and are visited by, many manufacturers.  Shows they are good at keeping secrets too.  They also did the motor for the VW Pikes Peak car so have a good pedigree.

[Simon Bateman 94]

13 hours ago, auRouge said:

and best yet... it wont get black flagged for noise 

True, although will it not have to have some form of synthesised engine noise......

All new models of electric cars sold in the European Union must now make artificial noise under certain conditions.  Acoustic Vehicle Alert Systems (aka, AVAS) will need to be installed in new models of hybrid and electric cars introduced from today onward, and all existing models by July 2021. With an AVAS installed, vehicles will need to make a sound while travelling under 12 mph, or while reversing.

Maybe, just put one of those reversing soundtracks that lorries have on them......

'this hypercar is reversing...this hypercar is reversing'' 

[Stuart Monument 765]

This developed this on the 414e years back. Lotus were ahead of the curve. Called halo sonic I think ! 

[Bibs 8,933 4 Vehicles]

10 years ago! 

[jonwat 260]

Interesting read on Pistonheads. 

[The Pits 4,081 1 Vehicles]

Yes thought it was a very interesting and fair point about the limitations of battery tech dictating the specs and performance.

I really hope that one day Lotus and car buyers will return to brilliant, small, light, more affordable sports cars but those are already available and sadly not selling very well.

Making such a bold statement and with this fantasy poster car seems like the right way to re-invigorate interest in the Lotus brand at this time. It worked very well for McLaren when they introduced the P1. Until then they were the new kids on the block in the supercar game. Gate crashing the hypercar party was a smart move. Ferrari and Porsche were doing their usual once a decade hypercar thing and all of a sudden there was this 'Holy Trinity', every car mag and video had to compare all 3. Cars were soon trading over list and McLaren became a part of the supercar/hypercar establishment overnight.

[jep 191]

Lotus on the charge. Just the jump-start they needed.

Fingers crossed for the future; exciting times. There appears to be some genuine joined up-thinking and the cash to back it up.

Justin

[C8RKH 4,244 2 Vehicles]

1 hour ago, jonwat said:

Interesting read on Pistonheads. 

I quite enjoyed reading it, it was balanced and not bashing, and I agreed with the sentiments re a lightweight, affordable, electric sports car. Hopefully, the Evija is a stepping stone to this.

[Likuid 93]

Great article. I think the author will eventually get what they want from Lotus. As the Lotus CEO said, "The Evija is a statement of intent." I am sure Lotus talked about this a lot. I think starting at the top and whittling down is the better way to go. You create a poster car, you gain attention back to the brand, and you can trickle the tech and knowledge learned down to the new Esprit, Evora and Elise-like cars. Not just electrical knowledge and tech, but aerodynamics, interior, ICE, production methods, etc. I think if Lotus unveiled a new electric Elise. Even if it looked great, and great specs, etc. you just wouldn't get the attention from the mainstream media or even mainstream car media that Lotus wants. I mean, I have seen Lotus on CNN and Bloomberg recently. IMO there is no way they make it on such shows and publications with just a new Elise.

I get it, I am not super patient either and would have rather saw something closer to my affordability window, but from a business stand point I think this is the right way to go. It makes me more excited to see what they can take from the Evija and put in more "affordable" models in the future. Hopefully we will see some combustion engines in the mix as well. Plus with the new mid engined C8 throwing a wrench into the sports car market it will be interesting to see what Lotus and other brands do to differentiate themselves. Mid-engined sports cars are about to get way less exotic once you see C8s on every corner. Time to start thinking outside the box.

Edited July 22 by Likuid

[NedaSay 733]

The guy from Vehicle Virgins' take on Evija, he was not at the launch but gives us his opinion on it so a lot of talk but only PR still shots of the car... 

 

[Steve V8 1,231 1 Vehicles]

I tip my hat to Russell Carr and the design team at Lotus...has there been some kind of divine intervention from the tips of those Hethel pencils? 

With the Evija we have witnessed a huge leap forward in hypercar and automotive design, I haven't been this exited (and shocked) about a car since they unveiled the Lamborghini Countach 48 years ago. 

Well done Lotus/Geely you are now the benchmark.

[Jeanvm 92 1 Vehicles]

I was thinking the same thing, I compare this with the time as when the Miura and Countach were launched.

[Techyd 123 1 Vehicles]

For me, kind of an odd article.  Trying to re-make a point that's been tried before.  Manufacturers build what people buy.  The Toyota GT86 was a car they thought people would be want by the bucket load - with the emphasis on lower power and superb handling.  It was critically acclaimed.  It didn't sell that well.  It wasn't what people wanted.  Similar applied to the Honda CR-Z, which was a great little car again - a bold experiment by Honda, responding to a trend they thought was emerging but which wasn't.

What the article does lend itself to though, perhaps without meaning to is that it shows EV is not the answer - but it is responding to the market.  The engineering issues of EV haven't been overcome, shy of some wondrous invention or a change in the laws of physics.  I'm not usually pessimistic but I think we're a few generations away from that sort of thing.  By then of course, peoples expectations (and memories) of cars will have changed and so will the way these things are evaluated.

Naturally, anything is possible in the future, right but I think all we'll really see is a jump in price points to a level of un-affordability for the masses combined with a new system of buying a car and then buy your batteries to go in it (probably lease your batteries).  Oh and Mercedes product range will comprise more models than there are species left in the rain forest.

Personally, I think hydrogen fuel cells were a much better proposition, despite its own challenges.

That being said, its clear the Evija will be a huge accomplishment for Lotus, and a very capable vehicle with its technologies and concepts filtering down the range...just minus the affordable bit.

[NedaSay 733]

This conversation belongs more to the future of Lotus but thread I don't know if  we'll see a price jump in our lifetime, I do think that the so called Vision 80 is fairly conservative in terms of price variation, it does include, a halo hypercar and did so from the get go, but for the rest it is pretty much Lotus' own and time delayed version of Porsche development from the early 90's with a few variation and much higher tempo.  Porsche was able to stretch its brand thanks to part sharing  components with its group brethren  back then... Well a thorough look at Evija will show you that Lotus is gearing up to do just the same ; If you look at the Evija seats, well they are a volvo designed seat, not a Recaro, a Sparco or Sabelt but Volvo's own concept seat:

Lotus made it look racier by exposing the carbon shell and playing with paddings, but it is very much the same seat that Volvo has been developing with for a while. I do think the same happened  with the AC vents, they are pretty with that aluminium piece of trim but I could sware I have seen this very vent design on some Geely products.

The Evija being a halo product it will enjoy maximum level of "bespokisation"  but all future models, while retaining a good amount of Lotus design will incorporate a lot of Geely group DNA. The devil will be in the details but the Volvo Geely parts bin will be raided over and over till Lotus find the exact part they need. Some of it maybe on display for all to see and will be fettled with to look the part (engine, gearbox, seat, toggles...) but most of it will be away from prying eyes (AC/HVAC system, pumps and other angine/gearbox anciliaries, wiring loom...)  and will be wholesale dropped  into the lotus chassis to perform their job. So there would be economies of scale and marginal gains made that would make pusching the price up secondary.

But back to Evija, I do think that the design team was at its best, and that the engineering team really pulled  it out  of their ... to engineer that marvel,  Now CMC will have to deliver the chassis  and the factory floor crew will have to hone their skills to assemble this beauty flowlessly, but that is the way things have always be done at Lotus assembling parts of various provenance to create something special and this time we can say  truly special. Now I know Lotus has been working with Prodrive on their carbon fiber body parts but has the factory been upgraded so that they can now produce them in house?

 

[RichardC 81]

 

 

[C8RKH 4,244 2 Vehicles]

Hydrogen fuel cells are coming. They will exploit the existing infrastructure (garages), peoples unconscious behaviour (i need fuel I go the garage), and protect the current business models.

In Aberdeen, SGN has modified its existing gas network to take hydrogen from offshore to the bus depot to power emission clean buses.

I've said this for a while but EV will be localised, hydrogen will be national. EVs are the Betamax. Hydrogen the VHS.

[swindon_alan 1,650 1 Vehicles]

Musing. Will there also be a place for hydrogen ICE then? Also greenie friendly and I still get to have suck bang blow and an exhaust note. I find hydrogen fuel cells rather old school and slightly concerning. After all, Apollo 13's plumbing went pop big time...