Lotus and Williams Advanced Engineering team up
The new "strategic technical partnership" that should power Lotus' £2m hypercar
Electric is the future, batteries are heavy, weight is bad; we've heard it a million times. So when one of Britain's foremost experts in battery and electric motor tech teams up with a brand famed for 'adding lightness', it can only be a good thing.
That's exactly what's happened today, with Lotus and Williams Advanced Engineering announcing a new strategic technical partnership. Under the arrangement, the companies will join forces to research and develop "advanced propulsion technologies" with the aim of leading "high performance automotive evolution across multiple vehicle sectors".
While the press release doesn't get any more specific than that, it does draw attention to WAE's "award-winning work applying knowledge derived from the pinnacle of battery technology during the inaugural four seasons of Formula E into electric vehicles". Put that alongside Lotus Engineering's status as "an acknowledged leader in lightweight structures and advanced materials" and it isn't hard to see where things are headed.
Lotus, of course, is already believed to be working on a bespoke all-electric hypercar, set to act as a halo product as owners Geely repositions the brand for the future. Beyond the obvious relevance the partnership will have to that project, though, it's easy to see it bearing fruit in other areas of the manufacturer's upcoming range. A Lotus SUV could certainly benefit from the technology, as could hybrid variants of its road cars, which seem increasingly inevitable to one day enter production.
Explaining the partnership further, Lotus CEO Phil Popham said, "Our new technology partnership with Williams Advanced Engineering is part of a strategy to expand our knowledge and capability in the rapidly changing automotive landscape. Applying advanced propulsion powertrains can provide numerous exciting solutions across multiple vehicle sectors. Our combined and complementary experiences make this a very compelling match of engineering talent, technical ability and pioneering British spirit." We couldn't agree more.
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