In the first 75 years of its existence, Lotus has almost always teetered on the brink of bankruptcy – and often enough fallen on the wrong side. Until Geely came five years ago and repositioned the English patient with Chinese billions: Lotus is to become a purist sports car manufacturer and a generalist for electric luxury, and what started with delicate buds like the Emira is now experiencing its first flowering in the Eletre.
It is true that this five-meter-long colossus of more than 2.5 tons is a betrayal of one’s own ideals for the guardian of the Grail because of its lightness and, above all, its lightweight construction. But at least they do it, if they do it, then at least do it right. Because they may – apart from McLaren and Morgan, of course – be the last sports car manufacturer to bring an SUV. But hers is the first to be fully powered. And it shouldn’t stop with the eletre. Next year there will be an electric Gran Turismo like the Porsche Taycan and the following year an answer to the electric Macan – somehow they have to fill the factory in China, which is designed for 150,000 electric cars a year.