Lotus has confirmed that its first-ever electric car will be called the Evija - and there’s less than two weeks to go until its grand unveiling.
Auto Express reported last month that Lotus was planning to change the name of its electric hypercar from Type 130 to Evija, after spotting that the British marque had filed a trademark for the name.
Now the name has been confirmed, Lotus will be turning its attention to the launch of its first all-new model since the arrival of the V6-engined Evora sports car in 2009.
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The company says that fans attending the Goodwood Festival of Speed, running from 4 to 7 July, in Chichester will be offered a “sneak peek” at the Evija ahead of its official unveiling in London on 16 July.
We’ll find out more details about the Evija in the coming days. In the meantime, here’s everything we know so far about the electric hypercar:
Release date
Orders are expected to open shortly after the car is unveiled on July 16.
Only 130 examples of the hypercar will be produced. They will be “hand-built” at the company’s headquarters in Norfolk, says Motor1.
Deliveries are expected to get underway next year, says the motoring website.
Price
There’s no word on pricing yet, but a company insider told PistonHeads that the Evija would have a “seven-figure price tag.”
Design
According to Autocar, which was shown a “full-size clay model” of the car, the Evija is a “low and wide” hypercar that’s built around a carbon fibre structure.
The structure’s design is similar to the “teardrop form” of the Ford GT40 racing car of the 1960s. This allows airflow to pass around the car with ease, improving its top speed and overall aerodynamic grip, the motoring magazine says. The teardrop shape houses a “tightly proportioned” cabin akin to a Le Mans-style racing machine.
Lotus’s design director, Russell Carr, told the magazine that the hypercar was similar in length to the 4.4-metre-long Evora sports car. The Evija, however, will be wider at two metres. It will also sit lower to the ground.
Carr says the Evija has a pair of Le Mans car-inspired carbon fibre ducts at its rear. These help improve aerodynamic grip at high speeds.
Motor and performance
The Evija will be the first Lotus car to be co-developed by Williams Engineering, a division of the Williams Racing Formula 1 team, says Auto Express.
The two firms have worked together to build a bespoke battery and motor setup for the hypercar, which is expected to deliver a power output of 1,000bhp, the magazine says.
Autocar says that the car’s battery will be located underneath the passenger compartment and will deliver power to all four wheels. We don’t yet know whether the car will be powered by four electric motors (one on each wheel) or a twin-motor setup (one on each axle).
