close flaps at the front helping to reduce drag when required thus improving range.
What’s it like to drive?
Okay, so to address the elephant in the room, this is in no way a lightweight, modern interpretation of an ‘original’ Lotus model. It’s a large, heavy SUV built to deliver some pretty impressive performance while still remaining as comfortable as you’d want a high-riding car like this to be. Put previous assumptions about Lotus aside and this is one fine-handling model; the steering is sharp and accurate and the regenerative braking is handy with its three modes, though we don’t like the split-design paddle behind the wheel. It rides pretty well, too.At slower speeds you can feel the car’s suspension struggling to mask the car’s weight, but it’s very accomplished at keeping the Eletre level and honest through the bends. There’s also no piped-in ‘electric’ noise, which is quite refreshing after several EV models which sound like a Hollywood film every time you press the throttle.
There’s very little to tie it to Lotus models of old, apart from a smattering of original Colin Chapman – the founder of Lotus – logos dotted throughout the cabin and on the outside pillar.
What’s it like inside?
It’s quite dramatic inside the cabin of the Eletre, but everything is beautifully finished.The seating position is high, but the sports seats are comfortable and nicely supportive. Prices for the Eletre start from £89,500 – or £104,500 for our ‘S’ version – and it definitely feels worthy of this tag.The material quality is great, as it is the general fit and finish. As we’ve touched upon, the Eletre can be optioned in either five- or four-seater configurations, and we’d be tempted to lean towards the former just because it lends a little more practicality to this EV and allows you to fully lower the seats to expand the boot.You also get more boot space as standard – 688 litres over the four seater’s 611 – which expands up to 1,523 litres with the seats down.A useful ‘frunk’ adds an extra 46 litres, too.
How does it look?
It’s going to divide opinion, this one.The Eletre hits the road with a very distinctive look, that’s for sure, with all manner of angles here, there and everywhere.There’s some active aerodynamics going on, too, with open and
74 | mccarthyholden.co.uk
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