Lotus is building a 1,000 HP, all-electric hypercar

[Shawn Knight]

Something to look forward to: Lotus is classified as more of a sports car maker than a producer of exotics (some might argue that the Esprit V8 is its rare exception) that focus more on providing value-minded vehicles. With its upcoming EV, codenamed “Omega,” Lotus will skip the supercar category and go straight for hypercar status in a bold repositioning.

British automotive company Lotus is reportedly building a 1,000 horsepower electric hypercar that’ll hit the market in the early part of the next decade. It’s all being led by Geely, the Chinese automaker that purchased a controlling stake in Lotus in May 2017.

Sources familiar with the matter tell Autocar that Lotus is preparing the vehicle with a bespoke all-electric powertrain. If all goes as planned, a concept could be unveiled as early as next year.

It won’t come cheap. Autocar expects the EV to carry a price tag in the range of £2 million ($2.5 million). By comparison, Tesla's upcoming Roadster, with a blistering 0-60 mph time of 1.9 seconds, will command just $200,000.

Fun fact - the original Tesla Roadster was based on a Lotus Elise chassis.

Current Elise Cup 250 pictured below. 1.8L engine, 243 HP, 0-60 MPH in 3.9 seconds

Lotus has built a reputation for turning out lightweight vehicles; tossing heavy battery packs into the mix could disrupt that heritage. Unless engineers can come up with groundbreaking technology to improve power density or reduce the number of cells needed, that advantage could be left in the past.

Top image courtesy Sergey Kohl, Shutterstock

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https://www.techspot.com/news/77795-lotus-building-1000-hp-all-electric-hypercar.html

 

[Vulcanproject]

Lotus Omega as the codename. Funny, the Lotus Omega is another name for the Lotus Carlton. It was a legendary early 90s four door sedan with ludicrous power and performance for its time.

The Corvette ZR-1 back then had 375bhp and 370lb/ft of torque, the Lotus fettled sedan had 377bhp and 419lb/ft torque. It was nuts. They were related as GM products, either side of the Atlantic. The Omega used the ZR-1 transmission.

I have fond memories. This Lotus Omega is something entirely unrelated but at least it has a good code name to start with!

 

[IAMTHESTIG]

So, what does the rusty surface of a brake rotor have to do with a Lotus electric car? Other than the fact that there is Lotus branding there?

 

[Uncle Al]

Tesla Coil for recharging, optional ........

 

[p51d007]

Wish someone would pull a "Henry Ford", and make one that "even my employees could afford".

 

[MilwaukeeMike]

With its upcoming EV, codenamed “Omega,” Lotus will skip the supercar category and go straight for hypercar status in a bold repositioning.

while they're using all the coolest words they can think of, they may as well tell everyone it goes up to 'Ludicrous speed'

 

[wiyosaya]

So, what does the rusty surface of a brake rotor have to do with a Lotus electric car? Other than the fact that there is Lotus branding there?

EVs use regenerative breaking - or - its simply what happens to any "elite" car after someone spends more money than god has and leaves it sitting around.

 

[senketsu]

So, what does the rusty surface of a brake rotor have to do with a Lotus electric car? Other than the fact that there is Lotus branding there?

that's one rusty brake rotor, not a good photo for promo the car IMHO

 

[mailpup]

I find the use of XZN lug bolts interesting. I'm not familiar with all cars, especially exotics, so for all I know they're commonly used as lug bolts. I do know XZN fasteners are used for other parts of cars. Although I have a set of XZN drivers, mainly for the few German vehicles I work on, until now I've not seen them used as lug bolts.