British car company Lotus has been cooking up something special in Norfolk. The £2.4 million ($3.3 million) Evija is an all-electric hypercar that's going to usher in a new age for the sports car brand. With more than 1,600 bhp, this 130-car limited edition run is set to offer an incredible thrill to anyone with Elon Musk-level money. Not Elon though, he's unlikely to buy one of these with his own updated Tesla Roadster on the way.
Lotus has some connection to the electric car world. The first Tesla Roadster was based on the Lotus Elise, and was actually built in Lotus' factory before being shipped to California. It's perhaps some of that work that inspired Lotus in the concept for this new car. Although interestingly, the Evija only claims a 0-60 mph time of "under 3 seconds." Elon says the Roadster sports a sub two-second time. But we'll have to wait and see if that's actually the case.
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Anyway, Top Gear magazine has driven the prototype and delivered the sort of shocked and screaming first drive thoughts you'd expect for a car like this. The speed is clearly something else, and the magazine editor, Jack Rix, explains that this isn't even the finished car, it's running at around 75% power at the moment.
What's clear right now is that this car looks absolutely spectacular. At the rear are two massive venturi tunnels surrounded by LED lights. These tunnels aren't for show, but rather to feed the diffuser air to generate downforce.
The car, according to Lotus, will have a top speed of more than 200mph and a range of 215 miles — although it's fair to say you probably won't get the full range if you're using the full speed.
Unsurprisingly, this car is clearly aimed at people who expect to spend time at a track. While not shown in Top Gear's video, the Lotus site shows a slick, lightweight carbon fiber interior which has a sensational center console with touch-sensitive controls for the major driving controls. Clearly weight management is key here, and it looks like this little pocket rocket is going to achieve amazing metrics.
Lotus isn't done with combustion yet, however. While the Evija an exciting look at the future, the company is still planning to announce an all-new car in July that will still burn use fossil fuels. It will, however, be the last ICE (internal combustion engine) car the company produces with more EVs due to arrive in the coming years.
Of course it's hideously unaffordable. So perhaps the rest of us can stick with a Tesla Model 3 or a Rivian RT1.
