What’s this “Porsche Taycan” you speak of?
For a low-volume automaker, Lotus Cars clearly has huge ambitions. Among those, we’ve seen the Evija hypercar, the Emira as Lotus’ last gas-powered sports car and the Eletre SUV. Now, we have the similarly named Emeya, a sleeker four-door performance model meant to take on the likes of the Porsche Taycan, the Tesla Model S and the Lucid air as a so-called “Hyper-GT”.
Underneath, the Lotus Emeya is closely related to its SUV sibling. You get a 102-kWh battery pack onboard, for a start. The standard model should manage the same 603 horsepower and 523 lb-ft of torque as your standard Eletre. At the top-end, though, the performance version promises a massive 905 horsepower 727 lb-ft of torque from its two high-power electric motors. The net result is a top speed over 155 mph, Lotus says, as well as a 2.8-second 0-60 time. That, the automaker says, makes it “one of the fastest electric GTs in the world.” It’s worth noting the “one of” qualification there, since the Model S Plaid claims a 1.99-second 0-60 time, while the Lucid Air Sapphire is supposed to do it in 1.89 seconds. The Porsche Taycan Turbo S offers more down-to-earth acceleration with a 0-60 time of 2.6 seconds.
It’s not all about power, of course, as the Lotus Emeya gets standard air suspension and a host of aerodynamic features to make the most of that colossal power. All the expected supercar airflow tricks — grille shutters, rear spoiler and rear diffuser chief among them — make their appearance here.
Give a car that much oomph, and you can reasonably expect Lotus’ decisions to impact range. Official figures aren’t out just yet, but the company does claim similar figures to the Eletre, so anywhere between 260 and 315 miles on a full charge. While that’s a bit less than the Model S Plaid, the Emeya does fight back with a 350-kW DC fast-charging rate. Hook it up to a charging station that can pump out that much juice, and Lotus says you can replenish 93 miles of range in just five minutes. Charging it up to 80% may take as few as 18 minutes.
Looking inside the Emeya
Lotus’ challenger to the current crop of fast four-door electric sedans brings a thoroughly modern interior, much like the Eletre SUV. You get a large infotainment screen, a smaller digital instrument cluster right in front of the driver, and a 55-inch augmented reality head-up display will be an option. The automaker also showed off its camera setup on the doors, though it’s likely we’ll see traditional mirrors (at least until federal safety regulations catch up to the technology).
The Lotus Emeya is a four-seater by default, though you can get a bench seat to make the car a proper five-seater. At the rear, it also has a liftback rather than a sedan-style trunk, so the cargo volume looks pretty decent as well.
When will it arrive? Lotus says the Emeya will go into production next year, so it will arrive in the U.S. as a 2025 model. Pricing is still a question mark for the time being, but expect it to start somewhere in the low-$100,000 range. If you want the full-on 905 horsepower version, that will likely come in closer to $150,000. At least, that’s assuming Lotus wants to price its Hyper-GT competitively to its main rivals, which nearly all come in more expensive than even the $150K figure. Tesla is the only major exception to that at the moment, as Model S Plaid pricing is down to a staggering $89,990 before destination fees.
