Lotus is set to become an EV carmaker after the release of its final combustion model, the Emira, but the company is also partnering with other EV hopefuls and will share its new platform, the E-Sports. Alpine will use that platform to develop its own electric sports car by around 2025, Automotive News reports.
The companies announced their partnership earlier this year, but as Lotus starts transitioning to an all-electric marque, its EV ambitions are solidifying. Ditto Alpine’s own, and that means something like an electric A110 is upon us.
The partnership between these two carmakers alone would draw our attention, but knowing that this is an effort to develop an EV makes all the difference, because it’s a matter of ethos and approach, and Alpine’s is just so good.
Alpine doesn’t make a faster sports car, it makes a better one by distilling the experience to balance and handling. That’s not to say the A110 is slow, but it’s not a displacement monster. This approach could translate to an all-electric that doesn’t prioritize range or battery capacity, but handling instead.
Lotus is developing its E-Sports platform with a similar emphasis, per the carmaker’s managing director, Matt Windle, quoted here from Slash Gear:
The E-Sports architecture will be flexible and modular, and will generate an exciting new sports car icon for the Lotus brand, with contemporary styling, class-leading ride and handling, explosive performance and that unmistakable Lotus character – a pure dynamic experience that is ‘For The Drivers’,
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I have challenged our teams to target the same weight as our latest combustion engine sports cars.
The thing we don’t focus on enough when talking EVs is that mass is just as important a metric as any other. Most discussions about electric cars are usually circling around matters of recharge time and range, to the disservice of handling. I’ve never heard someone compare, say, a Miata and a Model 3. With good reason!
A Model 3 is not trying to drive like the Mazda, but the truth is, it couldn’t if it tried. A better comparison would be between the extinct Tesla Roadster and extant Alpine A110. Again, not an ideal comparison, but a more feasible one when you consider the goal of either car.
I trust Alpine, of all carmakers, to produce a sports EV with the necessary battery capacity while resisting the urge to cram the car with batteries to appease the long-rangers. Alpine could instead pursue a better balance of battery range and mass in order to produce a stiff and light canyon carver in the spirit of its past, which should totally be called the E110.
