We’ve had teases, a name reveal, and plenty of speculation about what it’ll be, and now the Lotus Evija, which Lotus says will have almost 2,000 horsepower and more than 1,200 pound-feet of torque, is with us.
Evija (pronounced E-vi-ya) means “the first in existence” or “the living one,” and although a Lotus spokesperson tell us that “Evija is not a direct translation. It’s derived from versions of the name Eve, as in Adam and Eve, the first woman,” it seems rather apt for Lotus’ latest. It’s the company’s first electric car, and the first car in what’ll hopefully be a fresh product line up.
It looks pretty rad all told. Designed in house, the Evija is all about aerodynamics. The plate over the nose may look like a decent throwback to the current line up, but it’s there to guide air over the car. The vents in the side go all the way through to the (STUNNING) rear of the car. Kind of like a Ford GT. The idea is to get the Evija to slip through the air as cleanly as possible so each available electron isn’t wasted by fighting something as primitive as air resistance.
The interior is stripped out but elegant. The center stack has touch points for key functions, while the driver gets an infotainment screen to feed relevant information into their eye holes. In an uncommon move for a halo hypercar, the driver’s seat moves to meet fixed pedals rather than the other way around, like on your normal car. Tons of the latest range-topping exotics, other than the Lotus, now move the pedals and the wheel rather than the seat, for better weight distribution, of course.
You’ll notice the front arches are pretty high, that’s for a reason. Lotus’ late test driver Roger Becker (he of driving Bond’s Esprit under a helicopter) liked to have a good visual cue as to where the front wheels of a car were, and lo, the Becker Bump was born. The current crop of Lotus’ all have them in one form or another, and they look set to be a design hallmark from now on.
Though it’s not exactly a lightweight. In its least-heavy spec it’s 3,704 pounds, which is a fair bit up on an Exige, but an Exige can’t crack 200 mph, can it? Lotus’ figures for its shiny new hypercar are pretty strong – zero to 62 mph in less than 3.0 seconds, 0 to 100 mph in less than 9.0, and top speed is over 200 mph. Lotus also says the Evija’s range is 250 miles, according to the WLTP combined cycle. Lotus says it’s aiming to give the Evija almost 2,000 horsepower in order to be the most powerful out there, while torque is a healthy 1,254 pound-feet. Naturally, power goes through all four wheels and it’ll come with a beefy traction control system to stop it from eating its tires every time it wants to get away from the lights.
Only 130 Evijas will be built at Lotus’ Hethel plant, and it’ll set you back between £1.5 and £2 million ($1.9 to $2.5 million) plus local taxes. They’ll only come in left hand drive and it’s currently only homologated for Europe, though that won’t stop interested parties sourcing one outside European borders.
Lotus will be revealing more about the Evija as time goes on, but don’t even bother trying to get one by the time it’s sitting in a dealership. They’ll all probably be long sold before then.
