Lotus comes with electric SUV! As Colin Chapman said: 'Simplify, then add weight'

Lotus is full of ambition. The small sports car brand was taken over by the Chinese mega concern Geely in 2017 and since then the money has been splashing against the baseboards. Geely - which also owns Volvo and Polestar - wants to make Lotus a meaningful (luxury) brand. And the first signs are good. Lotus impresses with the 2000 hp, fully electric Evija and the successor to the Elise and Evora, unveiled in July: the Lotus Emira.

Lotus introduces large electric SUV in X5 class

But there's more to come. This week saw the start of construction of a Lotus technology center in Wuhan, China (indeed, the city where the coronavirus outbreak began). At the ceremony, Lotus announced that four new models, all electric, will be launched over the next five years. The first will be unveiled as early as 2022 and is a large SUV in the BMW X5 and Volvo XC90 segment. It goes internally through life as the Lotus Type 132.

Another SUV, but also a four-door coupe from Lotus

This will be followed by a four-door coupé in the segment of the Audi A7 / Mercedes CLS (Lotus Type 133, 2023), a mid-sized SUV similar to the Audi Q5 and BMW X3 (Lotus Type 134, 2025), and an electric sports car (Lotus Type 135, 2026). The recently introduced Lotus Emira will therefore be the very last Lotus ever with a combustion engine. Buyers can choose between a four-cylinder turbo engine from Mercedes-AMG and a V6 with compressor from Toyota.