Lotus shows a lightweight platform for electric sports cars

Geely-owned Lotus will launch an electric alternative to today’s 2026 Elise and Evora models, now called the Type 135. Now the manufacturer is showing off the platform on which the car will be based: E-Sports. Renault-owned Alpine has also been involved in the project and will use the platform.

British sports car manufacturer Lotus is now owned by the same Chinese company as the Swedish car company Geely Volvo. And beneath them, Lotus has now marked a path toward becoming fully electric. The recently launched Emira sports car will be the brand’s last model with an internal combustion engine, and four new electric cars will be launched until 2026.

The first is something o-Lotus like a big SUV. It’s called Type 132 and it will be shown next year. The car will be built on a new luxury car platform called Lotus Premium and will be manufactured at a new plant in Wuhan, China. A four-door coupe will also be built with a Type 133 (2023) and a mid-range bonnet Type 134 (2025).

2026, however, the matter are restored. That’s when Lotus will roll out a new, lightweight sports car from the factory at Old Hethel Military Airport in Norfolk, Great Britain. The Type 135 will be an electric replacement for today’s Emira (and outgoing models like the Elise, Exige, and Evora, for that matter).

Developed with Alpine

With a longer wheelbase, the platform has a larger battery pack.

See also  Sweden secured group victory - beat New Zealand

At the beginning of the year, Lotus began collaborating with the sports car brand Renault Alpine, which will also be all-electric using “F1 technology”. The new E-Sports platform is said to have been developed with the French, who will also use it in a sports car, which is also likely to be launched in 2026.

E-sports can be used Both two- and four-seater sports cars and three different configurations are now planned. The first has a wheelbase of 2,470 metres, and a battery pack with eight 66.4 kWh battery modules installed in the middle, behind the driver and passenger (just like in the Lotus Evija super sports car). This Lotus combines with an electric motor at the rear 350 kW (469 hp).

The platform can also be used for sports cars with longer wheelbases, allowing for a larger battery pack. The second configuration has a wheelbase of 2,650 mm and then accommodates six more battery units in the middle, increasing the capacity to 99.6 kWh. Despite the extra weight, this is supposed to be much faster; It has an additional rear electric motor that increases overall system power to a solid 650 kW (871 hp).

In its four-seat configuration, the new Lotus platform instead contains battery units mounted in a more traditional way: lying on the floor.

third and last The configuration offered by Lotus is for a four-seater sports car with a 66.4 kWh package installed in the floor instead of in the center. A potential electric sports car could be built with this basic build with one or two electric motors at the rear.

Although Lotus stresses that its new platform is light, it hasn’t shared the exact weight number for any of the three configurations yet. The rear subframe, on the other hand, should weigh 37 percent less than the Emira’s V6 does.

The platform is coming To be used by car manufacturers other than Lotus and Alpine. Lotus already said today that it will sell it to other brands through Lotus Engineering.

Pictures/graphics: Lotus Collection.