2024 Lotus Eletre R Review // The World’s First ‘Hyper’ SUV
Winter descends on the deciduous forests of Southern Canada and the fabled car enthusiasts have heard a whisper of a fun all-wheel drive solution for the snowy months and they’ve spotted it where help ah teamwork it’s not their strong suit the badge says Lotus but confusion fills the air it has Tech it’s rather
Large and heavy but it’s a Lotus that means something oh no no exhaust pipes they’ve realized it’s a lotus Eeve you’re watching throttle house I’m Thomas and I’m James and This is the Lotus Electra Electra according to Lotus you are looking at the world’s first hyper SUV $150,000 us price tag 95 horsepower a two-speed transmission fast charging and 304 M of range from the company that for the last few decades has specialized in handbuilt mid-engined lightweight gas powerered
Sports cars made in Britain comes a machine built dual motor 5800 lb electric SUV from China H with the help of the Electra and its other electric offerings Lotus wants to go from being a company that sold a 100,000 cars in the last 70 years to one
That sells 100,000 a year from now on thanks to its new Factory and specifically that factory is in Wuhan and that’s because Lotus know that if something originates there it’s going to catch on around the world no you can’t make that joke you can’t no that’s not a
Thing what joke that well you kind of implied I haven’t implied anything just market research what are you implying nothing none good not a thing um anyway this is a Lotus apparently because it has a badge on it that says Lotus yeah um Lotus have said that this SUV thing um carefully and
Respectfully evolves their knowledge of suspension and Chassis tuning good yeah we’ll find out there should be no issue then as far as lotuses tended to be a bit smaller and beautifully designed and this does take some of the design language on the front but it also kind
Of mixes it with like Pur sangu and Urus so yeah it does get a bit of the dentist’s mouth yeah um but otherwise I think people are going to be split on this I don’t know how good you can make an SUV look I don’t mind it the way I
Think it’s kind of funky yeah our sound engineer Harrison said that it looks like a Kia through a kaleidoscope um which is a particular burn and it’s but yeah maybe not though maybe that’s just what key is needed a little bit of Kaleidoscope LD carved by
Air um and but it’s not the most slippery it’s not as slippery as a model X or a uh Lucid gravity right um it’s kind of funky though there’s lots of like spots for the air to go through well it has a frunk so not bad packaging yeah uh this
Has the extended carbon fiber package going on so there’s there is a lot of carbon fiber actually car fiber carbon fiber in the wheel wells carbon fiber here carbon fiber on the front uh and that therefore you know makes it so light sub 6,000 yeah yeah they they
Brought it right down to like Elise level yeah it’s it’s a little bit shorter than an Urus it’s a little bit longer than a model X even though it’s only two rows yeah and it has these 23in wheels that are they look they they look like they’ve been pre- curbed oh because
Of this cuz of this little design here I’m well they’re diamond cart they’re quite beautiful I think they’re quite the wheels are great but they do look precurved yeah um no listen this is a cool looking SUV the color yeah as far as making a statement this so this is
Kaimu gray that’s a weird way to say primer the primer stuff is getting quite popular the cars we’re reviewing her in that yeah uh I looked it up though cuz I thought maybe it has some crazy meaning yeah does it no well in Hawaiian okay it
Means a gathering at the sea wow uh but I don’t know if it’s supposed to be Hawaiian in Chinese it means to open and in Japanese it means Pleasant comfortable agree and in Portuguese it means vagina no that’s the hindai Kona oh Kona not Kimu right okay yeah um can
We drive it yeah okay let’s do It all right track mode left foot on the brake right foot down we are lowering and whoa okay right so that’s what 900 horsepower in a 5800 lb electric SUV feels like what’s the point of launch control if okay that was like an AMG level of like losing the rear end that
Was ridiculous this is the Electra R the r a Don’t make me say ah it’s like the doctor trying to get me to open my mouth fully this has 900 h power if you go for a normal Electra it’s like 600 this gets a big fat motor in the back as well as
The one in the front and it has one motor in the back yes oh they all have two Motors yeah this one has a bigger motor in the back right so even though it boasts a sub 3 second n to 60 and we tested it and we got
3.1 right with 60% charge so who knows yeah it’s still means that it’s I think the quickest dual motor EV you can buy right that’s very specific thing but I know what they’re saying yeah the the problem with with dual motor is that there’s only one motor in the rear with
A tri motor there’s one on each wheel yes so the advantage of that is that it can act like a limited sub differential and do active torque vectoring pushing one wheel in a corner this one can’t yeah this has brake based torque Vector right okay so we’re why you put this out
Of track mode this is quite a harsh right it is actually very bouncy in this mode but that’s okay it’s not stiff it’s just there doesn’t feel like there’s that much travel okay so let’s go let’s just go to sport mode you should calm it down a little
Bit right yeah and when you do that this feels like every single other sporty EV SUV that I’ve ever driven it feels but it feels as good as the best of them sure absolutely no question yeah it’s definitely a very sharp vehicle but weirdly when you put
Your foot down it doesn’t rip your skin off in terms of power builds the power it builds the power foot down right now and then it starts to they obviously tried to simulate an old naturally as it’s definitely quick we do have paddles but this one
Only does Drive modes and this one turns the regen up and down but it doesn’t go all the way to one pedal driving which is a bit weird why not if you have options why not make that one of the options yeah fair enough but the it does
Feel really good for the drive modes it’s quite a nice click quite a nice click feel it from here if only it was changing years and a transmission attached to a supercharged V6 attached to a Lotus Amira yeah fair enough they’ve had fun visually here this is based on Unreal Engine the same
Same stuff that underlies the uh the Hummer EV and stuff so the graphics are fun but there’s no crazy sounds going on visually though from the driver seat you got a little head-up display you got that gauge cluster Y which kind of tells you all you need I really like this
Gauge cluster actually it’s not obscured no it’s not obfuscated either um I don’t know what either of those words mean exactly but I feel like this is exactly what I would do were I to design a digital gauge cluster it doesn’t need to be any bigger than that and it’s
Perfectly integrated into the dash and it has rear wheel steer which means that is super easy can we okay that’s the first SUV ever been able to do a full look at that very impressive and beautifully integrated it doesn’t make you feel sick no this right
Now it just no longer feels like I have a rear wheel steer it feels perfectly agile and the steering is I would say just as sharp or sharper than any other EV SUV I’ve been in not a whole lot of feedback but that’s just kind of the
Name of the game when you have that much weight so so you might have noticed when we walking around this car there was some extra little bits and Bobs y uh on the sides that look like sort of tow hook differently shaped tow hook releases yes exactly but that’s not that
That is liar because they’ve tried to Future proof this car it will one day be I’ve heard this lie somewhere else uh capable of fully autonomous level four driving right so when you activate the liar they those body color bits recess and outcome cameras and and as it does
On the front as well and it even even has a self cleaning thing make sure that they’re always Crystal Clear yeah the one on the back kind of looks like it’s having a bad time though it’s like badly programmed it pops out a bit tries to spray then pops out further and then
Sprays and misses speaking of the back I actually like the way it looks from the rear a lot got that split spoiler look it’s cool which actually is a similar design to these two pieces here I think intentionally yeah it’s also got an active spoiler which is surprisingly
Loud there because there there aren’t many sounds going on in this car so when it closes and opens it just goes yeah which I guess is a cool sound cuz at least it’s you noce the sport thing moving and not something bad every single Electra has air suspension
Yep this one has the active anti-roll bars the 48 volt anti-roll yeah which by the way right now like this is a road that was throwing us all over the place my head is barely moving yeah that the Lexus TX was the last SUV we we were in
That had active anti-roll bars and then I should be able to dive into the corner careful Careful yeah no it’ll do it yeah this feels from the passenger seat this feels very agile right now better than a BMW this is like I yes it it is better than an for sure it’s it’s I would say potentially even Beyond Jaguar ipace which would make this the best handling electric SUV
It’s definitely got more communication than the ipace as well right like I’m a bit white knuckled after that but uh I went through there super quick it was like really really quick but you know what there’s a lot more in the car so the performance is definitely there yeah
Um it doesn’t exactly feel like you know an extruded aluminum chassis uh Lotus Elise no does really have that Vibe I I read earlier articles about this and they were apparently targeting 2,000 kg which is like 40 something hundred they were targeting it for for the curb weight okay didn’t happen didn’t even
They didn’t even manage no but the beauty of adding weight yeah is that it allows itself a lot of luxuries especially on the inside and park okay so something you’ve been looking at for a few minutes is this interior and we’ve said nothing uh and yet it is the first
Cabin in a long time that I have wanted to make love to kaimu might might as well be Kona because yeah great I I I can’t get over did you do you want me to leave you alone with the interior of this car I’m just saying there’s many different
Shapes of holes I’d say that one’s probably for you though I’ll take it okay fine fair enough I don’t think we can leave any of that in the video anyway I think that this is a a very very very very very nice interior that’s six this
Is this is like you know we we talk about the price a lot and whether the price is worthy of the performance or the exterior looks or but the this is 100% $150,000 interior it is yeah and the you know the fact you can get this basically for cheaper if you don’t go
For the r yeah so this SC scen pops out when the car starts it’s a bit of a gimmick cuz when it’s folded away there’s no extra utility that you have I was going to say this is where everything is dare I say too much is yeah ergonomically and for actual like
Usability usability the there’s serious issues in here yeah it’s not perfect but before we get to that yeah the design so you’ve got this beautiful almost piece of art going across here like in a Rolls-Royce that would be have some fancy name and be $10,000 yeah it would
Be called like the like the something gallery and it be a gallery yeah gallery and yet on this it’s just L it’s so not Lotus none of this feels like I’m describing a Lotus no none of this makes any sense this so this is the gold interior has the extend the the interior
Carbon fiber pack it’s got gold accents and stitching everywhere the kef audio which is 23 speakers really good it not only does it sound fantastic it looks brilliant it looks I’m afraid I’m going to break these little fins though is I as I can actually have access don’t
Touch it no okay touch it um speaking of the gold I like all the gold accents with the exception these look great but for some reason the ones in the steering wheel that plastic look it almost looks cheap like it like reminds me of like
The gold that I would have on like a ’90s Batman action figure I see yeah I agree the steering wheel gold not the best version of golf it’s the gold leaf that you get on a steak that you’re paying way too much for yeah yeah except that’s real and this isn’t um this
Though is beautiful this wood yeah well I’m not sure if it’s real real wood or some sort of vegan composite you can so this is these are the Napa leather seats so they’ve done some vegan stuff there’s an alternative option is they used not vegan leather but offcuts from the
Fashion industry to form the seats so it’s it’s part of the reduced reuse recycle it’s the ReUse part okay so it’s a stage before recycle all right well that’s pretty fancy yeah uh to release the glove compartment it is over here for some reason which is it’s okay and
It goes and it goes back up powered automatically no it doesn’t no it doesn’t um but at least the volume there’s a knob to adjust it there’s no knob to adjust there’s Noob you’ve got this for the volume or you can go up here and change it here and this is
Really slow and this doesn’t let you do it if you’re like reversing or anything so the if you’re a normal person and for some reason we are programmed when we put a car into reverse to turn the music down you just have to turn the music down because you’re reversing when you
Get to your location you’re trying to find out what house it is you’re like I I can’t see because the sound yeah you can’t do it quickly make any sense but the gauge cluster as we said is right in front of you and thin and easy it’s cool
I really like this I think it’s I get my own one as a passenger I don’t quite know how to say this but uh Jim Jim Jim Jim crochet Crim crochet Jim crochet Jim if you know how his name croi we yeah I think Jim cochi I think what a legend
Though and what a song um anyway I think this is a very comfortable interior I think it’s a very well-built interior I think it’s incredibly solid feeling like there’s hardly any Creeks to anything that I can find right you can really push on it and there is a PS du
Resistance I’ve lost it now because this screen is too complicated let’s figure this out how do we Okay so we got settings here we are so we’ve already G to vehicle we’re in vehicle and then you’ve got the intelligent glass roof all right are you ready for this because
I I’ve seen some cool stuff with like the the magic Sky makes it darker elomatic electrochromatic roofs right like on a Boeing 777 this is that but it’s different because it doesn’t just darken assuming you’re you’re in yeah there we go assuming that uh you can use
This thing you just swipe it you just swipe it you just swipe it you just swipe it you just swipe it to it to here and then it becomes foggy that is yeah Isn’t that cool F why is fog good first is dark it’s very British though it’s
Like the Moors right yeah so it’s also I feel like China is get a bit as well it does true yeah yeah yeah so it’s true to both countries I think that is absolutely excellent and it’s just so cool to watch it happen but I can’t
Because I have to focus full on and making this work so at least this screen’s been working better than the rear screen there is a lovely little rear Square screen bag here um where you can adjust sound and seats and stuff and that has been even more misbehaving like
It just decides suddenly when it wants to understand that my finger obviously this is a passenger vehicle um those do also have the Maya which is a sedan and then there’s some sort of two seater thing coming but this is incredibly spacious in the rear as an EV should
Have it hasn’t got a transmission tunnel so it’s very comfortable well it’s got like a transmission bump no right it’s where the carpet was it’s like a oh yeah it’s pretty flat it’s got USBC back here uh plenty of legum spacious now there is
A bit of a bump it is a bit happy to see us it’s like a little like it’s knocked its head little bit of a bump but otherwise very spacious um it’s nice it really really is nice in here and even on the back of our seats there’s just
Like this beautiful piece of carbon fiber with a gold trim yeah which has a gap which you can if you want mess with the driver if you want you shouldn’t but if you want anyway I think that all this is very nice and I assume that this will
Be updated over time hopefully right um because it needs to be it does need it yeah when they when they do like 5G updates does it also like can it grow things like could it grow a volume knob down here I don’t think so I think if
They just increased the speed of that volume I’d be fine that would be probably okay yeah yeah I think there’s there are a few ergonomic and user experienc things that could be upgraded and if if they were I want to say that this is the most beautiful and best
Interior of any SUV I’ve ever been in that’s pretty bold well it’s pretty expensive yes true but I I I think yeah I would I would go so far to say that yeah um all right it’s time for conclusion cuz this is a bit of a tricky one
Yeah putting a badge on something doesn’t make it so the Electra is a lotus in the same way that an Aston Martin F1 car is a beer nothing about this vehicle Bears any resemblance to any Lotus we’ve ever touched or seen or driven or dreamt of is it the world’s
First hyper SUV as Lotus say Well considering there are SUVs out there that are more exciting or quicker or have better range or just don’t do a weird Corgi butt wiggle thing on some of its launches then no it can’t possibly be the world’s first hyper SUV not even
By Price Which is higher than most of its electric competitors but in the ice World an Urus is a 100 Grand more a Ferrari Pur sangu is 250 Grand more and neither of those claim to be hyper so it’s not really hyper anything other than hyper ambitious what it is is an
SUV that handles as well as if not a bit better than the other heavy electric SUVs out there and despite honking on it all day we didn’t feel sick at any point which might as well be a gold star in fast EV land brakes throttle steering are all well calibrated and perfectly
Suited to its Mission it’s also quite a beautiful place to be inside and though not quite model X plaid quick it is rapid all of this suggests that the in coming Lotus emaya sedan could quite easily be the tyon Rival that it slated to be still that may not earn the
Forgiveness of lotus fans everywhere who think that these electric Creations out of China are sacrilege thankfully for those that still want handmade lowai from Britain the team in Heth is still putting in the work on the actual Lotus sports cars and if you can get over that
The Electra is just a competent EV SUV that’s cosplaying as a Lotus it’s pretty solid and I think it could even put Wuhan on the map James do you actually not know what are you talking about Thomas I’m get I’m getting real tired of this thanks for
Watching hey hey what’s going on it’s like the YouTube end screen thing oh yeah there’s like lights and stuff yeah see that we’ve never like utilized it before you know oh we just done a black screen yeah yeah we only have about 15 seconds to like tell people to do other
Stuff whatever it is that we choose you know oh okay that’s pretty cool how long’s it been well it’s been probably about 15 seconds so we’ll have to do that on the next one yeah
The 2024 Lotus Eletre R (~$150,000) is a brand new fully electric SUV, with 905 horsepower and an estimated range of 600 km / 373 miles. It has a claimed 0-100 kmh time of just under 3 seconds and a 266 kmh / 165 mph top speed, which has Lotus boasting the Eletre R as the World’s fastest dual-motor SUV. But despite this speed it still weighs a considerable amount – especially when compared to any other Lotus in existence. But does it still drive and provide a Lotus-like experience despite its size and weight? Thomas and James are excited to find out! We hope you enjoy the episode. And then subscribe, silly.
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