How do you solve a problem like Evija?
Lotus's new hypercar is its biggest statement since the launch of the Elise. But is it the right one?
How is it that a British sports car manufacturer I have a lot of affection for can unveil a new hypercar with 2,000hp and mind-bending acceleration figures, and I feel unmoved by it? I don't particularly mind that the Evija derives its motive force from motors and batteries, nor that it'll cost £2m (I would be no more likely to buy one if it cost one-tenth of that). I suppose I feel a road car capable of clocking 186mph in half the time it takes a McLaren 720S to do the same is so utterly unnecessary.
I already think high-performance cars are becoming too fast. Drive a 720S on a British road and you'll manage three or four second bursts of acceleration at best, getting nowhere near the limit of what it can do. Machines like the Lotus Evija represent a quantum leap in road car performance at a time when they're already too fast. They move us inexorably to a point where performance cars are defined not by how fun they are to drive nor by how cohesive they feel dynamically, but by how quickly they accelerate. It's just daft.
What's particularly frustrating in the case of the Evija is that Lotus always understood better than most that speed in a straight line is not what makes a car rewarding. I look at the Evija and though I adore its styling - and though I hope a couple of hundred million quid in revenue and the brand recognition Lotus will pocket around the world helps it to produce a new Elise soon - I find myself wishing Lotus had built a lightweight electric sports car with usable performance that genuinely broke new ground.
But I know precisely why it's given us the Evija instead. The technology doesn't exist for any other sort of high-performance EV. Not right now, anyway. Where there is consistency there is truth, and for Lotus and technical partner Williams Advanced Engineering on the one hand, and Automobili Pininfarina and Rimac on the other to arrive at the same concept for the their ultra-exclusive EV hypercars - 2000hp or so, one motor per wheel, staggering performance, enormous battery pack - says to me that there actually isn't any other way.
While Lotus and Pininfarina, as well as Tesla with its forthcoming Roadster, have all announced warp-speed machines that'll do 0-62mph in two seconds, nobody has yet had a credible go at building a lighter and more affordable EV sports car with a level of performance you can actually deploy on the public highway.
Why is that? It's all to do with the limitations of current battery technology. The very first problem car engineers address when building battery-powered cars is range. That might be range in terms of day-to-day driving, or in the case of a high-performance car it might be range on circuit. Two laps of the Nurburgring on a single charge, or perhaps two full sessions during a normal track day, is probably the minimum permissible range for such a vehicle. Anything less would be close to useless.
Immediately, then, you need a vast battery pack. In the case of the Evija that's a 70kWh lump, weighing something like 500kg. Once you've added motors, heavy duty cables and the various control systems, you're looking at a powertrain weighing more than 600kg and a very chunky vehicle even before you've thought about the rolling chassis, the body, the cabin and so on. (Let's quickly acknowledge that the Evija is substantially lighter than a number of similar cars, which certainly is in keeping with the Chapman ethos. But it's still a porker.)
So how do you overcome all that weight? You give it a couple more motors, making it slightly heavier still but sending the power-to-weight ratio through the roof. Once you've decided on a high-performance electric vehicle, there is only one logical outcome. You inevitably arrive at 2,000hp. Lotus and Pininfarina both worked that out independently of one another.
Could you halve the size of the battery, remove a couple of motors and address the problem that way? Not really. Your car will be lighter by 300kg or so and with 1000hp it'll still be astonishingly fast, but it'd have a hopeless range. Particularly on circuit. Nobody would buy one. So you forget that idea and get on with the heavier battery and the four motors and the 2000hp headline figure. Besides, when you're offering that sort of performance you can charge £2m. Kerching.
Given the current technology on offer, Lotus' hands were tied. Or at least they were once it decided to go electric. As it is, the Evija and the Pininfarina Battista are bound by the physical limitations they face to the point of being defined by them. That's the opposite of progress. The most innovative performance cars throughout history actually overcame the limitations they were up against by deploying new techniques and pioneering new technologies.
That day is coming for the EV hypercar, but we're surely several years away from it yet. When battery technology improves and they become lighter, or when somebody cracks solid-state, there will arrive a game-changing lightweight EV hypercar that will merit comparison with cars like the McLaren F1. It will spawn affordable EV sports cars as well, but neither the Evija nor the Battista is that car.
Still, we have to start somewhere. Lotus and Pininfarina find themselves right at the bottom of the performance EV development curve, but at least they're on it. I just hope that Hethel and the rest one day come up with better ideas than simply making their electric cars faster and faster and faster.
Yeah, they're great engineering feats, and great looking artwork in some Billionaires very expensive garage. But I'm now like Hu'h another car purely to get the cash out of the rich.
We'll see one or 2 at some shows. You'll never see any on the road.
I've never read up on any of these new Hypercars. Just not interested anymore.
I'll likely never see an Evija in the carbon. I certainly won't be able to ever afford one. So its mad, incredible but ultimately meaningless performance doesn't really affect me one way of the other.
We're already past the point of cars being too fast for the roads and it had nothing to do with EVs. It will become worse in future with EV powertrains but I think things like all wheel torque vectoring and tyre tech and chassis rigidity will make a bigger overall difference to unusable performance.
And there are two other points about releasing an all new car today. 1. imo, anything that isn't all electric is a disgrace really, unless it one of these last hurrah for ITE projects like the Valkyrie or Gordon Murray's new F1. So the timing of this car meant it had to be an EV. 2. A halo car is probably the quickest way to start to leverage Geely's investment in the Lotus brand. Low volume reasonably priced sports cars do not make financial sense. Geely are not giving Lotus stacks of cash out of the kindness of their hearts. They must be looking at Lotus thinking that with the right investment they can finally turn the brand into the Ferrari (and Porsche, Lambo and nowadays McLaren) rival that it has historically aspired to be. Selling megabuck hypercars to the mega rich is the right way to do this.
Personally I would like to know that when there is no more petrol around to fuel my Elise that there will be an electric Lotus version that offers the same sort of fun and driving experience. But if the technology doesn't exist for that yet, then in the meantime it's all about staying in business for the foreseeable!
Bring on the SUV! (only make sure it is an EV also).
This is lotus, so just showing a series of mock ups would look like Bahar. If they deliver this quickly they are making massive statements about the "new" Lotus
Able to deliver projects quickly (may not always have been Lotus Engineering's strong point)
and able to deliver cars with too much power
Last time lotus went up market was the Esprit, promised with a V8, delivered with a low torque 2 litre, and no money for the 4 litre V8 that a slant 4 was intended to herald
It is also a mile away from Polestar, so Lotus will not blur too much with Volvo
I hope this is a "Look what lotus can do with decent backers" statement
It's what us engineers do I'm afraid. We don't shy away from doing things because the time isn't right or the apparent challenges too difficult. The process of doing it and possibly failing is all part/parcel of progress, growing your engineering heritage, knowledge and experience.
This one might be less than optimal but in 2 or 3 cars time it'll be cracking, precisely because of what they've gained in the process. In the same way the Elise didn't suddenly appear but is so bloody good because of an age of experience.
Evija does not preclude an Elise replacement. On the contrary, I think Lotus would be mad not to. Whilst profit margins are single digit % in this segment, the volume sales enable many, many components used on Evora, Esprit Exige, etc to be carried over. The Evija’s interior in an Esprit (with large amounts of carryover, not just design ‘intent’) would instantly separate it from the competition. Is this the case, based on the Evija, I would say no at this point, It looks like a stand alone vehicle developed in isolation (by Williams) to me, but I hope I’m wrong.
Perhaps the SUV be used as the volume seller, with its parts used on Esprit? This would not send a particularly palatable message imho, but who knows.
Either way, it’s too soon to judge, but there is huge amount of good will and latent buying potential out there if they get the mix right. I for one will be rooting for them.
It's what us engineers do I'm afraid. We don't shy away from doing things because the time isn't right or the apparent challenges too difficult. The process of doing it and possibly failing is all part/parcel of progress, growing your engineering heritage, knowledge and experience.
This one might be less than optimal but in 2 or 3 cars time it'll be cracking, precisely because of what they've gained in the process. In the same way the Elise didn't suddenly appear but is so bloody good because of an age of experience.
Anything over £100k needs serious multimillionaire cash and an EV over £1m puts in the Oligarch and Dictator range who ironically make most of their money from selling oil.
I stopped reading Evo when it became simply car porn and the cars, no more attainable then 18 year old twins. At least Pistonheads has the equivalent of readers wives
But seriously I miss the Halcyon days when £50k out you in motor car heaven with TVR, Lotus and many other chasing customers with very desirable metal (or fibreglass). Now that just megahatch money
Yeah, they're great engineering feats, and great looking artwork in some Billionaires very expensive garage. But I'm now like Hu'h another car purely to get the cash out of the rich.
We'll see one or 2 at some shows. You'll never see any on the road.
I've never read up on any of these new Hypercars. Just not interested anymore.
Otherwise, yet another in the ongoing blitz of 1,000, 2,000, whatever BHP cars that never go anywhere simply produces the noise 'Meh' in my mind.
I couldn't imagine being less interested in a new Lotus model.
However, I find it curious that you wait until Lotus unveil a class-leading car that you decide that there's some fundamental issue with these kinds of cars.
I don't like the genre but if you look at the class in isolation, Lotus are joining the party and going straight to the top of the pile. You need to acknowledge them for that.
There seems no press on earth that are more critical of Lotus than its homegrown press!
There's as much sense trying to use a 2000bhp car on the roads as there is a 1000bhp, or even half that. The higher it goes the less sense it makes, and the less relevant with it.
We need something else, some measure of "driving excitement", or whatever.
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