It would seem that yet another luxury manufacturer is rethinking its all-out devotion to Electric Power. This time, it’s Lotus.
A couple of years ago, in the Lotus annual report, an overlooked byline stated, “If the market for luxury electric vehicles does not develop as we expect, our business prospects, financial condition and operating results will be affected.”
A little more than a year later, it would seem that risk has become a reality. The luxury EV sector is in trouble. Even in Lotus, China, the new home of the EV revolution and where state subsidies abound, sales of Luxury EVs have fallen by 50% this year, with some manufacturers already issuing earnings warnings.
The announcement from Lotus should not come as much of a surprise. Another marque in the same Geely stable, Volvo, made a similar announcement last month and Zeekr are known to be recalibrating their approach (also a Geely company).
Now Lotus, the perennial underachiever in terms of sales, where cars are supposed to be about the driving experience, have failed to excite the buying public with their Eletre SUV and Emeya Saloon.
Positioned as the right place to be in a traffic jam, not how fast you can get through the twisty stuff, the reception they got in China was, at best, lukewarm, with sales dropping there by 6% on the year.
It may well be that potential Luxury EV purchasers consider themselves to be too posh to plug in but at least Lotus have the sense to change the road they are on, at least slightly.
Lotus will now pivot over to luxury Hyper-Hybrids, which will see the addition of a turbocharged range extender for the model line-up in 2026. Still, it is not a true Lotus, but the new configuration will fit straight into the Emeya and Eletre architecture, giving it a 700-kilometre range.
Lotus says that the superfast charge technology they incorporate will be sufficient to excite the driver, giving the sort of seamless drive experience that Lotus lovers crave. I am not sure that the top management of Lotus is 100% sure this is the correct direction.
They have also announced the delay of the mini-SUV (aka type 134), the competitor for the Macan, and the launch of the type 135, and as of yet an unnamed sports car, both of which were due to be full EVs.
Lotus, the company that would celebrate sales of 2500 units per year not so long ago, actually managed to shift some (c.)12000 vehicles in 2024. But they were targeting 50,000 for the year and as many as 150,000 by 2028, so it would be fair to say they still face challenging times.
