New Lotus Eletre electric SUV – up to 892bhp and prices from £89,500

The new Lotus Eletre electric SUV arrives in three flavours – Eletre, Eletre S and Eletre R – with up to 892bhp. Prices start at £89,500

Can Lotus go from a maker of lightweight ICE sports cars to a maker of heavy electric cars and keep its credibility? Well, we’ll soon find out with the proper arrival of the electric Lotus Eletre SUV. But it looks more than a little promising.

The Eletre arrives in three versions – Eletre, Eletre S and Eletre R – with up to 892bhpand prices starting at £89,500. But you don’t get the entry-level price with the range-topping power. Although that said, there’s no paucity of power and performance even in the entry-level model.

The regular Eletre models – the Eletre and Eletre S (which costs from £104,500) – come with a 595bhp all-wheel-drive setup, but the Eletre R boosts that to 892bhp, with 0-62mph times of 4.5 and 2.95 seconds respectively. The R model also comes with a lower ride height and sportier settings and prices from £120,000.

Under the skin there’s a new electric platform and a chunky 1112kWh battery which Lotus says is good for a range of 375 miles. But anyone buying a high-performance electric Lotus SUV isn’t going to come close to the official figure unless they drive like a granny. Fortunately, and assuming you can find an appropriate charger, the Eletre will charge from 10-80 per cent in just 20 minutes. Standard wheels are 22″ forged jobs, there’s proper LIDAR and an active front grille too.

Inside is like no other Lotus before, and apart from the amount of space there’s also four-zone Climate, 15.1″ OLED screen, slim driver display, Lotus’s new Hyper OS operating system, electric seats and posh sound.

It all looks impressive enough and, if compared against cars like the Aston Martin DBX and Lamborghini Urus, seems like a bit of a bargain.