Lotus Rethinks Its New EV Strategy With Hyper Hybrids
Electric-powered Eletre SUV and Emeya sedan to be offered with hybrid powertrains within two years.
Lotus is the latest automaker to rethink its pivot to EVs. Geely-owned Lotus was one of the first to commit to producing only EVs before the end of this decade, saying the mid-engine Emira sports car launched in 2022 would be the last Lotus ever built with an internal combustion engine. Now, says Lotus Europe CEO Dan Balmer, the company is actively working on what it calls hyper hybrid-powered versions of its Eletre and Emeya EVs.
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“We are reading the room,” says Balmer, who claimed hybrid powered Eletre SUVs and Emeya sedans will be on the road within two years. “There's a core of a market that wants to adopt EVs, but at the same time there are people saying, ‘I love the products, but I'm not sure I can really live with this every day. I want that peace of mind to drive the car further’. We’ve made a long term bet on electrification, and we see this as the best of both worlds.”
Balmer, a former Rolls-Royce and Aston Martin executive, says the new Lotus hyper hybrids will be built using the existing Lotus EV platform, known internally as EPA, that underpins the Eletra and Emeya. “The architecture has the flexibility to do it,” he says. “There’s room in the cars to package the internal combustion engine, the fuel tank, the exhaust.” Balmer says the new hyper hybrids will feature a 900V electrical architecture that allows super-fast recharging, and that they will have a range of more than 680 miles on a single charge and single tank of gas.
The Lotus hyper hybrids are likely to use a performance-oriented version of Geely’s new Leishin Power hybrid system, which combines an internal combustion engine and e-motor and uses a series of clutches in its transmission system to switch power flows between them to ensure the internal combustion engine is always operating at peak efficiency. “What's being exposed in China now and over the next 12 months will change the general understanding of what hybrid vehicles can be, and that's the exciting part of it,” confirms Balmer.
Lotus’ rethink on EVs also means the lifecycle of the Emira sports car will be extended beyond 2030, which is good news for American Lotus fans, who in 2024 bought more of the lightweight mid-engine coupés than any other market in the world. The fast and agile Emira V-6 won’t be around for much longer, though, as its supercharged 3.5-liter Toyota-sourced engine won’t meet the tough Euro 7 emission regulations scheduled for implementation in 2025. The discontinuation of the V-6 also means this will be the last ever Lotus available with a manual transmission.
From 2026 on, all Emiras will be powered by the punchy Mercedes-AMG 2.0-liter turbocharged four-cylinder engine, which only comes with an eight-speed dual clutch transmission. With Mercedes-Benz recently announcing it is spending $15 billion to ensure its internal combustion engines can continue to be produced until at least 2035, that gives Emira a lifecycle well into the 2030s. And, says Balmer, its flexible space frame construction means the Emira model family could be extended beyond the single two-door coupe currently offered.
Beyond that, Balmer sees room for another sports car in the Lotus lineup, a car that would sit between the 400-hp, $107,000 Emira and the 1972-hp, $2.3 million electric-powered Eviya hypercar, first deliveries of which have just commenced. Balmer stresses no plans for such a car currently exist, but if it were built, logic suggests it would likely have a hyper hybrid powertrain, and a lifecycle that potentially extends beyond 2035. “Having a sports car in the range—having sports cars, plural, in the range in 2030—is why I personally would like to see it,” Balmer says. “But it’s pure speculation.”
I can’t remember a time when I wasn’t fascinated by cars. My father was a mechanic, and some of my earliest memories are of handing him wrenches as he worked to turn a succession of down-at-heel secondhand cars into reliable family transportation. Later, when I was about 12, I’d be allowed to back the Valiant station wagon out onto the street and drive it around to the front of the house to wash it. We had the cleanest Valiant in the world.
I got my driver’s license exactly three months after my 16th birthday in a Series II Land Rover, ex-Australian Army with no synchro on first or second and about a million miles on the clock. “Pass your test in that,” said Dad, “and you’ll be able to drive anything.” He was right. Nearly four decades later I’ve driven everything from a Bugatti Veyron to a Volvo 18-wheeler, on roads and tracks all over the world. Very few people get the opportunity to parlay their passion into a career. I’m one of those fortunate few.
I started editing my local car club magazine, partly because no-one else would do it, and partly because I’d sold my rally car to get the deposit for my first house, and wanted to stay involved in the sport. Then one day someone handed me a free local sports paper and said they might want car stuff in it. I rang the editor and to my surprise she said yes. There was no pay, but I did get press passes, which meant I got into the races for free. And meet real automotive journalists in the pressroom. And watch and learn.
It’s been a helluva ride ever since. I’ve written about everything from Formula 1 to Sprint Car racing; from new cars and trucks to wild street machines and multi-million dollar classics; from global industry trends to secondhand car dealers. I’ve done automotive TV shows and radio shows, and helped create automotive websites, iMags and mobile apps. I’ve been the editor-in-chief of leading automotive media brands in Australia, Great Britain, and the United States. And I’ve enjoyed every minute of it. The longer I’m in this business the more astonished I am these fiendishly complicated devices we call automobiles get made at all, and how accomplished they have become at doing what they’re designed to do. I believe all new cars should be great, and I’m disappointed when they’re not. Over the years I’ve come to realize cars are the result of a complex interaction of people, politics and process, which is why they’re all different. And why they continue to fascinate me.Read More
