New Lotus Emeya brings 905bhp for £129,950

The use of active aero is an “opportunity”, vice-president of Lotus design Ben Payne told Autocar, because it allows the firm to produce a high-performance car that also appears elegant.

“High-performing, aerodynamic cars are quite fragmented.” Payne said. “You have bits in various positions all over them, so they tend to look less clean, simple and coherent. For us, looking at the future direction for Lotus, we were very keen to try and make the cars look as pure as possible and active aero allows you to do that.”

Inside, performance-oriented cues such as carbon-bodied front seats and a flat-bottomed steering wheel are combined with more overtly luxurious elements – individual rear seats, digital rear-view mirror screens and materials with high perceived quality among them.

The tech prowess of Lotus Technology, the Chinese EV arm of Lotus, manifests in an expansive 55.0in head-up display, which projects key information such as directions and driver assistance system warnings across the width of the windscreen.

A large central touchscreen with 5G connectivity and over-the-air updatability is flanked by two slimmer digital displays – one for the driver, one for the passenger – in a set-up that broadly mirrors the Eletre’s.

Physical controls feature on the centre console, steering wheel and steering column, but many of the Emeya’s core functions are controllable using the touchscreen or voice assistance.

The high-tech cockpit serves as a “clear indication” of the advanced technical architecture underpinning the Emeya, said Payne.

This impression is reinforced by the Emeya’s cab-forward silhouette, long wheelbase and short overhangs – proportions made possible by the Emeya’s electric powertrain.

“We want to make sure that people understand this is an EV and leverage the possibilities the [skateboard] architecture allows you to have,” said Payne.

He explained that traditionally, a GT’s proportions have been determined by “how many cylinders are under the bonnet”, giving “a long, powerful [nose] and a tight cabin at the rear”.

By breaking from these conventions, the Emeya “subconsciously tells you this is an electrified product”, said Payne. “It physically can’t have a big V8 under the hood, because we didn’t have space for it”.

Aside from its sleeker silhouette, the Emeya bears a strong resemblance to the larger Eletre. This is “wholly deliberate”, said Payne, as Lotus aims to restructure its brand image around more practical, daily-usable EVs – against the backdrop of its heritage of building uncompromising sports cars.

Payne said: “Eletre is the biggest stretch for the traditional Lotus customer. Looking at where we’ve gone, we had to try very hard to put as much sports car DNA into that product as possible. Bearing in mind its size and proportion, for some people, that’s a stretch. I think, in the design team’s eyes, there are an awful lot of features on that car that really sell it as the hypercar of SUVs.

“Coming on to Emeya, we want to continue that. We’re quite mindful that Lotus needs to build an identity that makes sense and we have a properly joined-up aesthetic from the sports cars to the lifestyle product, so it looks like one complete range. At the minute, obviously, that’s in mid-process.”

Nonetheless, Payne wants to avoid “cookie-cutter” styling for future Lotus models. These include the Type 134 – a Porsche Macan EV rival that is “well in development” – and the Type 135, an electric successor to the Elise.

The Eletre and the Emeya form “a springboard” for these models – as well as what comes after that, which is “five years out”. Payne would not be drawn on the form these cars will take but confirmed that “super-exciting” design work has begun.

The Emeya will enter production at Lotus’s plant in Wuhan, China, later this year, with the first European deliveries scheduled to start this autumn.

Trim levels mirror those of the Electre, with mid-tier S cars priced at £107,450 and 905bhp R versions costing £129,950.

Emeya could spawn world's most powerful estate car

An estate-bodied Lotus Emeya is on the cards, which would effectively give the marque a fourth ‘lifestyle’ model line and serve as a rival to the Porsche Taycan Sport Turismo.

Design chief Ben Payne declined to confirm whether plans for a shooting brake Emeya exist, but he said: “Let’s just say I know a lot of creative people that these kinds of products appeal to. The design team is always looking at the next opportunity and how we can do something a bit different and get more [opportunities]. Is it in the product plan? I can’t comment on that.”

This echoes the thrust of Lotus commercial boss Mike Johnstone’s comments: “Consumer tastes change. New market segments appear and new technologies come into play that mean we could do things in a different way. We’re always looking for new opportunities to make sure we can maximise the amount of return on any investment we make.”

Such a model has the potential to be the most powerful series production estate car yet, given the Emeya R packs about 150bhp more than the Taycan Turbo S Sport Turismo, the current title holder.