The Chinese company Geely wants Lotus to be the leading brand of luxury cars, and an electric SUV currently codenamed Lambda should help. This SUV will appear in 2022 and will have a fully electric drivetrain instead of the hybrid one mentioned earlier. Production will take place in China where there is still a high demand for premium electric vehicles.
The project was started by former Lotus CEO Jean-Marc Gales, and the SUV was first talked about in 2016. At the time, high-performance hybrid drive, such as that used by Geely’s Polestar and Volvo brands, was being considered.
However, the electric car market was much less mature at the time than it is today, especially in China where more than 1.2 million electric cars were sold last year. Also, incentives encourage people to buy electric cars, so Geely’s move is understandable and for Lotus SUVs, instead of a hybrid, they choose a fully electric drive.
The goal is to triple sales in the next few years, from 1,500 to 5,000 cars a year. The first big step in sales growth is the new Esprit. A new hybrid sports car with a V6 engine coming in next year.
Due to the fact that the Lotus base in Hethel, Norfolk, is being renovated, the SUV could be produced there because the annual production capacity is 10,000 cars, but the base will still be reserved for the sports car.
Geely will produce the SUV at a recently built plant in Wuhan, China, which cost a billion pounds. This plant can produce 150,000 cars a year. Most of this will be Geely’s products for the domestic market. Also, part of the factory will produce a Lotus SUV. Experts from Hethel are in charge of the development of the chassis and drive, with the experience gained during the development of the Evia electric hypercar.
The base model will develop 600 hp thanks to two electric motors. The most powerful version will deliver 750 hp. That should be enough to make the Lotus SUV a competitor to the Model X. And other future high-performance electric SUVs as well. The range should be about 580 km.
