The Lotus Evija Is The Lightest All-Electric Hypercar In The World
It seems as though though the new Geely budget for Lotus has hit the spot with the British company revealing their first ever electric car, the Evija. While the name may be hard to swallow (maybe head to the next letter now, lads), the premise of this production car is happily accepted.
It’s a big change for Lotus, but their goals still curve around being lightweight. But this Lotus has much more to offer. For example a projected output of 1944hp and 1253lb ft of torque. with a quartet of motors, one for each corner, powering the car, you know fair well that this car will be no slouch.
Of course, this is a Lotus, so it can’t just be a horse that runs fast in one direction. That’s why its Williams Advanced Engineering battery pack is mid-mounted and tucked low to keep a low centre of gravity, and Lotus is keen to announce that the powertrain is “the lightest, most energy dense, electric power package ever fitted to a road car”. Big words from a small company, but if someone is going to pull it off, it’ll be Lotus.
If you put a number to that statement, it comes out at 1,680kg, making it 200kg lighter than the Rimac Concept_One. But Lotus haven’t released any of the important stats yet, so I’ll give it a guess. 0-60 should come in at under the 3 second mark, possibly closer to 2. They say 186mph should come in at under 9, and the top speed will be unsurprisingly over 200mph. Exciting.
But again, I’m left wondering whether it will live up to the name in the corners. But to quell my fears they’re incorporating a number of aerodynamic features. Its all-carbonfibre bodywork possesses two large venturi tunnels positioned high in the bodywork. These exit from within the rear ‘ribbon-style’ LEDs.
It has a ‘bi-plane’ front splitter which assists in both cooling and downforce, and the rear wing is active. Take a look at the sides and you’ll realise there aren’t any mirrors, either. Instead, like the McLaren Speedtail and Honda e, the car uses cameras which are sat within the design of the doors.
The high level of performance carries on beneath the bodywork. Here, Multimatic pushrod dampers – from the same guys who made the dampers for the Ford GT – sit three to a corner, and the wheels they carry are made of lightweight magnesium and are wrapped with Pirelli Trofeo R semi-slick tyres. Hiding within are AP Racing carbon ceramic brakes, because when you’ve got 2000hp under your right foot, you’re going to want to stop at some point.
Now, the big question: charging?
It’s compatible with 350kW chargers which are slowly being embedded in car parks. This will allow it to charge to 80% in just 12 minutes. Another six minutes and you’re good for the lot. At 100%, you’ll get 250 miles of range – I assume that prodding the accelerator pedal for anything over a second and that will significantly decrease, though.
Cost? Well that’s $250,000… for the deposit. In full you’re looking at £1.7 million plus taxes, and only 130 will be made so they’ll be going quick if they haven’t already been spoken for. Fancy it?
