The Lotus Eletre is a curious vehicle. On the face of it, the big electric crossover is the antithesis of everything Lotus has stood for since it was founded in 1952, but in a world where customers demand SUVs and emissions regulations were tightening, it sort of made sense. Well, it hasn’t really worked out. Things have been made very complicated by the fact that it barely ever sold in the U.S., thanks to heavy tariffs put on Chinese-made vehicles. If I had to guess, there are probably fewer than a dozen customer Eletres in the U.S. right now, but none of that matters anymore, because Lotus finally gave it what everyone wanted: a gas engine.
Don’t get yourself too excited just yet. Lotus isn’t dropping some high-powered, high-octane motor under the hood of its big SUV in an effort to get it to sell better stateside. Just the opposite, in fact. The Chinese-British automaker is sticking a turbocharged 2.0-liter inline-four, some amount of electric motors and a 70 kWh battery, borrowed from its Geely stablemate, the Zeekr 9X, into the Eletre — making it the company’s first plug-in hybrid, according to Autocar. I know that all sounds a bit, well, lame, but if a report from AutoEvolution is to be believed, then this thing is going to pack a serious punch. While there’s no official horsepower number for the PHEV Eletre, it’s reported that the system will pump out 952 horsepower, which is actually more than the 905 produced by the most powerful electric variant.
Oh, it also has a fun new name, apparently: Eletre For-Me. I’m not so sure about that one, guys.
It’s a hy-bird
Even with all of this power, a Chinese government filing, reviewed by Autocar, suggested that the Eletre PHEV will be able to travel up to 220 miles on pure electric power between charges. However, you’ve got to take that with the biggest grain of salt. This is according to China’s CLTL test cycle, which is even more generous than Europe’s already generous WLTP test cycle. In the 9X, the 70 kWh battery can charge from 20 to 80% in just 8 minutes with a peak charging rate well above 400 kW, according to Autocar.
It’s set to weigh anywhere between 5,677 and 5,687 pounds, depending on how it’s speced, so there won’t be too much of a weight delta between the electric and hybrid versions of the car. It also won’t look much different from the outside, other than the fact the front grille is a bit more open than it is on the EV to allow for more engine cooling.
Of course, the Eletre PHEV represents a pretty big reversal of course for Lotus. The company once planned to sell only EVs by 2028, but as the Eletre and Emeya sell rather poorly globally (and are pretty much dead in the U.S.), the company needed to reevaluate its strategy.
Still, there’s no word on whether it’ll reach our shores, but I’m sort of doubting it. However, if you’re in the UK, expect sales to begin sometime next fall
