The Lotus Evija, the 2,000-horsepower electric flagship that will pioneer the next-generation of sports cars from the automaker, is not targeting low-speed acceleration. Lotus wants its car to beat the supercars where they thrive — closing in on 322 km/h as fast as possible.
Gavin Kershaw, test driver for Lotus, spoke to Top Gear about the work going into the electric Evija supercar, and the sort of performance benchmarks it’s being compared to. Apparently, Lotus is really concerned with destroying Bugatti’s 0-322 km/h acceleration in just 12.4 seconds and they claim they can shave the time all the way down to just 9 seconds.
From Top Gear:
So, 0-62mph? For Lotus, the game has moved on. Its claim of 0-200 km/h in under six seconds is ridiculous, but Ferrari’s SF90 (6.7secs) is in that ballpark, and it actually lags fractionally behind the Bugatti Chiron Pur Sport (5.9secs). But from there upwards nothing road legal can touch it. The Bugatti takes another 6.5secs to reach 299 km/h. The Evija gets there from 200 km/h in less than half that time. Three seconds flat to do 200-300kmh, nine seconds in total from 0-299 km/h.
God knows where you’re going to use it, but Kershaw promises the experience is… memorable, “I’ve driven some of the Formula One cars – even the T125 with 1,000 horsepower-per-tonne – and they’re quite brutal. This has got such strength and growth – it’s a bit like going up the runway where you’re pushed back in your seat and held there. It’s a lovely sensation.” This is because the torque delivery from the four e-motors is so progressive.
“If you think about an internal combustion engine, each explosive combustion is trying to sheer the tyre, but here the torque application is quite soft.” And soundless, too. They’re working on a low speed noise to meet regulations, but for the time being “we’re not screaming around Hethel, so I’m not getting umpteen phonecalls telling us to keep it down” says Kershaw.
Bugatti has the full weight of the Volkswagen Auto Group behind it — one of the two largest automakers in the world. Meanwhile, Lotus has been skating on thin ice in circles around the ageing Lotus Evora, particularly in the U.S. market, as it hasn’t really had the financial security to do much else. Granted, today’s Evora is one of the best-driving cars ever built as a result of it, but it damn sure better be by now.
Hopefully Lotus will be able to apply the decade of development improvements made to the Evora straight into the Evija and come out of the stable with something absolutely jaw-dropping terrifying to be standing near when the car’s electrons get flowing.
Lotus claims it can get the Evija into customer hands by the end of this year, which would make it the first electric supercar with over 2,000 HP on the road, beating the Tesla Roadster and Rimac C Two.