Industry dynamics

Lotus Eletre 'Hyper-SUV' officially launched, starting at $114,000 in China

Publishtime:2019/08/16 Views:9

The Lotus Eletre is available in two versions in China, with deliveries to begin in March and May 2023 respectively.

It is available in China in two versions -- Eletre S+ and Eletre R+, both equipped with dual motors with a maximum power of 450 kW and 675 kW and peak torque of 710Nm and 985Nm respectively.

With this powertrain, the Eletre S+ can accelerate from 0 to 100 km/h in 4.5 seconds and the Eletre R+ in 2.95 seconds.

The Lotus Eletre S+ has a starting price of RMB 828,000 ($114,000) and deliveries in China will begin in March 2023.

The Lotus Eletre R+ has a starting price of RMB 1,028,000 and deliveries in China will begin in May 2023.

In the global market, three different versions of the car are available -- Eletre, Eletre S and Eletre R -- with the choice of two powertrains.

The model has a battery pack capacity of 112 kWh and a CLTC range of 650 km and 560 km respectively.

It supports 800V high-voltage fast charging across the range and can be charged from 10 percent to 80 percent in as little as 20 minutes at a fast-charging station.

The Lotus Eletre's cabin is equipped with two Qualcomm Snapdragon 8155 chips and uses five screens inside the car, with a 15.1-inch OLED touchscreen in the center console.

Also standard is the deployable LiDAR technology, a world-first in a production car that supports end-to-end autonomous driving (AD) technology, Lotus said.

The car is equipped with four LiDARs, seven 8MP cameras and 4D millimeter wave radar. It also has 2 Nvidia Orin X chips with 508 TOPS of computing power.

Lotus has not announced its LiDAR supplier, but previous information shows that its main front and rear LiDARs are Hesai Technology's AT128 and the LiDARs on both sides are RS-LiDAR-M1 provided by RoboSense.

Lotus has already built some fast-charging stations in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen, and the company expects to have more than 200 such stations by the end of 2023.

In the future, all Lotus fast-charging stations will be open to car brands that meet the technical requirements.

The brand is accelerating its global marketing presence and will improve its marketing and service network in 10 countries this year, including China, the United Kingdom, Germany, France and the Netherlands.

By the end of 2023, Lotus will build nearly 100 stores in China covering over 40 cities, according to the company.

Geely acquired Lotus, which has a history of about 70 years, in 2017 and owns 51 percent of the latter, including Lotus Cars and Lotus Engineering.

At the end of August last year, Lotus set up a new company in China, Wuhan Lotus Technology, and received an investment from Nio Capital.