Lotus puts a brake on its ambitions to become a fully electric brand by 2028

The British manufacturer, now under the control of Chinese car giant Geely, has just announced a significant change in its production strategy for the coming years. Some time ago, the company announced its intention for its entire range of vehicles to be exclusively electric by 2028. However, current market conditions have forced Lotus to readjust this strategy, as many other manufacturers have also done in recent months.

On the occasion of the Guangzhou Auto Show in China, Feng Qingfeng, the current CEO of Lotus, has revealed that the company he leads is going to reorient its initial approach, including in its lineup electric models with extended range through the use of a combustion engine, popularly known as EREVs.

Feng justified this decision by asserting that the luxury vehicle market is not showing excessive enthusiasm for fully electric vehicles. In statements to the media, he explained that, in his opinion, the combustion engines in luxury vehicles with eight or twelve cylinders are already extremely powerful, so there is not such a significant leap in the driving experience when switching to an electric vehicle. This perspective is what has led Lotus to focus on hybrid technology, and more specifically on that which uses the combustion engine solely as a generator to recharge the battery pack.

Let nothing hold you back

By combining one or more electric motors, responsible for propelling the vehicle, with a turbocharged combustion engine acting as a power generator, Lotus plans to offer even more than 1,000 km of range on some of its models. This last feature, the brand believes, may attract the attention of its potential customers. The idea is, ultimately, to offer the best of both worlds: the performance and instant response of electric propulsion systems, with the flexibility and greater range that can be achieved with a combustion engine.

“At Lotus we have always chosen the best propulsion technology available, and that is what we will continue to do. Whether it is purely electric or with the help of a combustion engine.”

Alongside a combustion engine performing the function of a power generator, Lotus also intends to implement in its next-generation vehicles a new 900V architecture, which will make ultra-fast recharging of the battery pack possible at a DC charging point with sufficient capacity. The British manufacturer believes that the combination of these technologies will be much more convenient for the customer than the path taken by other manufacturers, especially in the Chinese market, which are betting on battery swapping.

The Chinese market sets the pace

As we have been telling you here at HighMotor over the past few months, EREVs, electric vehicles supported by a combustion engine that acts as a power generator, are gaining more and more ground in the Chinese market. Lotus does not want to stay on the sidelines of this trend, in order to offer its customers the satisfying driving experience of electric models, but with ranges that are not, today, within reach of pure electric vehicles.