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About Eletre

Few cars have done more violence to a brand's reputation for lightness than the Eletre, and few have mattered more to its survival. Revealed in 2022, it is Lotus's first SUV and its first five-door car, a large electric crossover built in Wuhan, China, on an 800-volt architecture developed under Geely ownership. It weighs well over two tons, a figure that would have horrified Colin Chapman, yet it steers and handles with a precision that has won over plenty of skeptical testers.

The lineup has spanned dual-motor versions with roughly 600 horsepower and the Eletre R with about 900, enough to embarrass many supercars in a straight line. Active aerodynamics, a deployable lidar sensor and a cabin trimmed in durable textiles rather than traditional leather signaled the new Lotus's ambitions. Model-year updates have added features, sharper tuning and revised trims, and Lotus has discussed hybrid versions for markets where demand for electric luxury SUVs has stalled.

The Eletre competes with the Porsche Cayenne, the Range Rover Sport and the BMW iX, and it has faced headwinds that have nothing to do with engineering. Because it is built in China, it has been hit by steep tariffs in the United States and elsewhere, and Lotus has had to juggle where it can sell the car profitably. When Canada eased its tariffs on Chinese-built EVs, for instance, the Eletre's price there was expected to fall sharply.

Coverage of the Eletre follows those trade fights alongside the usual business of road tests, comparison drives, software updates, recalls and sales figures, which matter enormously to a small company that bet heavily on this car. It is also a bellwether for the whole idea of the electric performance SUV: whether buyers will pay supercar money for one, and whether a brand built on lightness can make a heavyweight feel like its own.