The Lotus Eletre tells us this brand no longer makes gasoline-powered cars. As we see the Emira drive off into the sunset, a new model shows up to take its place. This new vehicle is nothing like what we’ve ever seen from Lotus before. It’s heavier, powered by electricity, and a luxury SUV. The new vehicle is the Eletre, revealed on March 29, 2022, via live stream.

The Lotus Eletre makes a unique entrance

As reported by Autoblog.com, the Eletre (pronounced El-etra) showed up in a large yellow cube while riding on a boat down the River Thames. This dramatic entrance is only the beginning of what we hope will be an incredible SUV. The name Eletre means “coming to life” in some languages, and it signals a rebirth for Lotus.

The Eletre comes from the Type 132 filing

If you’re familiar with the Type 132 prototype, you already have an idea of what the new Lotus Eletre offers. This vehicle should be a luxury crossover SUV built by a sports car brand to amaze the world. Anyone foolish enough to think it would be the same as the latest Volvo and Polestar EVs is mistaken. While all three brands are part of the Chinese-owned Geely Group, the new Eletre is a unique luxury SUV from Lotus.

The new age of Lotus begins with a luxury SUV

It’s not hard to realize that this new offering allows Lotus to completely remake itself as a boutique luxury brand. We’ve never seen an SUV from this brand or a vehicle as heavy as the Eletre. The model revealed it brings a 600-horsepower setup, which is impressive, but that’s not all we’ll see. According to Top Gear, a 900-horsepower flagship model should arrive after a couple of years of the first model’s production.

Is the Lotus Eletre aimed at the Lamborghini Urus?

It wasn’t long ago when Lamborghini graced us with its first SUV, the Urus. The dimensions of the new Eletre luxury SUV are all within 0.7 inches of the Urus, and you can see some similarities to the style of the Lambo. Car and Driver lists out these dimensions as:

• 200.9 inches of length
• 78.7 inches of width
• 64.2 inches of height
• 118.9 inches for the wheelbase

The Lotus Coventry design studio shows the more complex design elements for this new SUV than the Urus, dispelling rumors of a feud between the two models.

Full powertrain details aren’t available yet

The reveal of this new Lotus luxury SUV did not offer the full details of what’s powering this new vehicle. Even so, we know it has at least 600 horsepower and a battery pack that stores more than 100.0-kWh of power. This SUV claims a top speed of 161 mph and a sprint time to 60 mph of fewer than three seconds. The targeted driving range is roughly 315 miles using the U.S. EPA method, and it can recharge most of its battery power in 20 minutes using a 350-kW fast charger.

A cool Google-based system for the Lotus Eletre tech

This new SUV offers a crisp and clear display on a massive 15.1-inch OLED central touchscreen using a Google-based interface system. Although the Lotus team didn’t allow testing of this functionality, they promise that the controls of 95 percent of the systems in this SUV will use one of the three screens. The Eletre has a head-up display and an impressive standard 800-watt/15-speaker sound system. If that’s not enough for you, a 23-speaker/1500-watt system is an optional upgrade.

We’re still missing several details of this luxury SUV

The reveal of this new SUV is pretty amazing, and the vehicle itself looks impressive, but there’s a lot of information missing. Certainly, we will have this information as we come closer to the Eletre making its way across the Atlantic to the U.S. in 2024. We should know the price, weight, and powertrain details by that time.

Could the new Lotus Eletre become the electric performance SUV you love to drive?

Next, check out how Mazda intends to mix the rotary engine with electrification or watch the Lotus Eletre in the video below:

This article was updated on 8/17/2022.