WORTH THE WEIGHT?

THE COMPANY BEST KNOWN FOR LIGHTWEIGHT SPORTS CARS DELIVERS A HUGELY FAST AND ACCOMPLISHED LARGE ELECTRIC SUV THAT'S SUDDENLY A TRUE HEAVYWEIGHT OF THE SEGMENT

- GEORG KACHER

PUT TOGETHER on a shoestring budget by a small team operating in makeshift premises, the first Lotuses were the brainchildren of Colin Chapman, the half-crazed purveyor of ultra-lightweight constructions, radical aerodynamics, brutal decontenting and reductive engineering.

One could argue that the zero-body-fat Emira and the high-downforce Evija electric supercar still incorporate key elements of the master's rebellious original approach to sports car design, but the Eletre - all 2.5 tonnes and over five metres of it - surely is a different animal. A large, D-segment SUV, this is the first four-door, five-seater since the Lotus Omega/Carlton which was more of a marketing-driven emergency fund-raiser than an authentic brand-shaper.

Based on an all-new bespoke platform unrelated to other Geely brands like Polestar, Volvo and Zeekr, the full-size crossover signals the marque's transition from fringe cottage car maker to world-class player good for 175,000 vehicles a year by 2030. Wishful thinking or breakthrough strategy? "We cannot base our future on 1500 sports car sales per year," knows Max Szwaj who runs the Lotus Tech Innovation Centre in Raunheim near Frankfurt, home of the Eletre.

"To survive, we had to reinvent ourselves by expanding the portfolio and setting new standards in terms of vehicle dynamics and user experience. The main agent of change is of course the irrevocable switch to electrification." At launch are three Eletres to choose from, and it's expected all three will be offered in Australia in Q2 2024. The base model (which is tipped to be priced around $250,000) and the S (at around $265,000 estimated) share a single-speed dualmotor drivetrain rated at 449kW and 710Nm.