Something to look forward to: Lotus is classified as more of a sports car maker than a producer of exotics (some might argue that the Esprit V8 is its rare exception) that focus more on providing value-minded vehicles. With its upcoming EV, codenamed "Omega," Lotus will skip the supercar category and go straight for hypercar status in a bold repositioning.
British automotive company Lotus is reportedly building a 1,000 horsepower electric hypercar that'll hit the market in the early part of the next decade. It's all being led by Geely, the Chinese automaker that purchased a controlling stake in Lotus in May 2017.
Sources familiar with the matter tell Autocar that Lotus is preparing the vehicle with a bespoke all-electric powertrain. If all goes as planned, a concept could be unveiled as early as next year.
It won't come cheap. Autocar expects the EV to carry a price tag in the range of £2 million ($2.5 million). By comparison, Tesla's upcoming Roadster, with a blistering 0-60 mph time of 1.9 seconds, will command just $200,000.
Fun fact - the original Tesla Roadster was based on a Lotus Elise chassis.
Lotus has built a reputation for turning out lightweight vehicles; tossing heavy battery packs into the mix could disrupt that heritage. Unless engineers can come up with groundbreaking technology to improve power density or reduce the number of cells needed, that advantage could be left in the past.
Top image courtesy Sergey Kohl, Shutterstock