Lotus Eletre first impressions – Wild looks, fast ride, demure on the inside

I’ve driven various high-performance and luxury EVs in the past like the EQS 53, i7, SQ8 e-tron, e-tron GT, and a couple more. So, when the opportunity to drive the new Lotus Eletre came, I just had to give it a go – even if it meant driving the car to Penang for a very brief one-night stay.

The thing about the Lotus Eletre is that it is a massive departure from the Lotus that we all know. As opposed to being a lightweight sports car with a decently powerful engine, the Eletre is an electric SUV that weighs close to 3 metric tonnes. It’s also a lot more luxurious, compared to the old Lotus cars which even shared some obvious parts with a Proton.

The first thing you have to do to appreciate the Eletre is to see the Lotus brand as an ultra-luxury performance brand. It has become bespoke, so to speak, and that’s just how it is. It’s even easier to appreciate (or see it without getting triggered) if the only Lotus you knew before this was the Grocery store, or the Lotus restaurant. Because like I said, the Lotus brand has become something different, and this change is necessary commercially.

So if I’ve successfully convinced you to look at the Eletre with a fresh perspective, here’s what I can tell you about it from by brief experience driving it to Penang and back (from KL) – It is a head-turning hyper EV SUV which is undoubtedly fast, and it has an ultra-luxurious lounge-like cabin (especially if you get it with the 4-seater configuration).

Its looks alone can justify the price point that it demands, and if you look at the intricacies of the design, it is actually rather impressive. And I’m not referring to the overused light strip design or the conversation-starting retractable rear wing. The body of the Eletre itself is a unique one.

In my experience of testing cars, I have never really come across a car that was so… porous. Sure, we’ve seen extreme aerodynamics on race cars or hyper EVs, but given that the Eltre is still an SUV (or crossover, or whatever you’d like to call it), its aerodynamic design efforts are admirable. Take for instance the vent that directs air from the middle of the bumper to the top of the hood – that is some supercar-level effort which has also made the front bumper into a complicated part to fix/replace.

And then there are the vents on the sides of the bumper that channel air through the front wheels, and onto the sides of the car. It’s bonkers really, given that this is an SUV, and with the current EV import tax exemption that’s going on, you’re essentially getting a 50% discount on what probably is the most dramatic luxury EV SUV you could buy. The only thing that bothers me here is the air vent on the C-pillar which generated a bit too much wind noise at high speeds, but still looks cool nonetheless. There are obviously more aero bits going on, but the last one worth mentioning here might be the split rear wing design which look like two dismembered Pikachu tails.

The downside of buying the Lotus Eletre may be that you’ll have to repeatedly educate excited children that this is a Lotus Eletre and not a Lamborghini Urus. It’s not a bad problem to have, but it can get annoying.

Inside, the Eletre tries really hard to up its luxury game. And I’ll admit, given what most manufacturers are capable of today, it can be tough to differentiate yourself as a luxury brand (if you audience judges luxury by the amount of cool gadgets that you have. In some ways, the Eletre understands that luxury isn’t about gadgets and there’s a good attempt at making tactile luxury great again with the knurling on some parts of the interior. And my honest feedback on that is that the knurling could feel more expensive. The paddle shifters could have a bit more weight to them and the cabin could use more metal bits on the inside. But this is probably just a matter of me not driving the specced-out version of the Eletre. It is fully customisable, and if it possible, I would get trim materials which have a bit more weight or luxury feel to them. Dear manufacturers, please make tactile luxury a thing again.

Everything is really pleasant in the Eletre’s cabin. If we’re talking about ergonomics, it is spot on, and if we talk about the use of Alcantara and leather in the cabin, I’d say these things justify the price of the Eletre. You could get an automatic electrochromic glass roof too, which is cool, but true luxury really comes down to how the car feels. And just by sitting inside it, I’d say it feels fantastic. But what about when the car is in motion?

I am going to mention here again that I have driven cars like the EQS 53 and i7. I just haven’t driven the Spectre. So, what do I have to say about the Eletre? Well, it is undoubtedly fast and it is well-composed at high speeds, high-speed bends, but just like most powerful luxury EVs, it feels quite muted. And it is a very strange feeling especially when you’ve just gotten into a striking Solar Yellow Eletre and drove off. There aren’t even any artificial sounds to add some excitement to the overall experience. And this is just something you’ll have to get used to. I’ve tried most of theses of types of cars and that’s how it feels.

Now I am not dissing high performance EVs. In fact I quite enjoy getting to drive them every once in a while. They’re crazy fast and make just about everything feel effortless. So, we’ll have to learn to appreciate these things instead of the usual in-your-face loud super SUV (i.e. GLE 63) if we want to continuously enjoy having an high-performance luxury EV SUV at our disposal. These new luxury performance EVs are stupid fast, and they better well be to compensate for our withdrawal from the usual brashness and loudness of what we’ve become accustomed to. I know I sound greedy right now, but we really need more silliness with these new EVs. And by silly, I mean silly angry, silly powerful, and silly loud. The Eletre looks amazing and crazy, and I want its character to match its looks.

Want a more detailed outline on the car? We’ll have to wait to get a press car arranged for a test drive to give you a proper review on the Eletre.

The Lotus Eletre S at a glance: