Lotus scales back its electric ambitions and bets on hybrid vehicles

Lotus, the British brand owned by Geely, announced several years ago that it would abandon combustion engines to become a fully electric manufacturer from 2028. The Emira was to be its last sports car with a combustion engine and, from then on, all of its new vehicles would lack a combustion engine.

Life has many twists, however, as the saying goes, and those plans are now a dead letter. Market reality has forced many manufacturers to scale back their electric ambitions, and Lotus has been no exception.

In 2024, as we already told you here on HighMotor, the British brand officially abandoned its original intention to become exclusively electric by 2028 and decided to add plug-in hybrids to its vehicle range, while also keeping, to a lesser extent, some models with combustion engines.

A new course to follow

Now, almost halfway through 2026, Lotus’s new strategic plan, called Focus 2030, adopts a more flexible and realistic multi-powertrain approach, following the same path already taken by other competitors. By the end of the decade, Lotus expects that within its electrified offering, 40 percent of its vehicles will be fully electric, while the remaining 60 percent will be plug-in hybrids. In addition, it will keep combustion-engine vehicles in production depending on demand and the regulations of each market.

“Given a regulatory and customer preference landscape that evolves at different speeds across regions, Lotus will adopt an agile approach with ICE, PHEV and BEV”.

This bet on hybrids is already visible. At the end of 2025, Lotus presented the “For Me” in China, the PHEV version of the Eletre electric SUV, whose deliveries have already begun. Likewise, the Eletre X, equipped with X-Hybrid technology, will reach its first European customers in the last quarter of 2026. In China, this model has been extremely well received, exceeding one thousand reservations in the first month alone.

The main exponent of this new strategy will arrive in 2028. The British manufacturer’s new flagship, the Type 135 -also known as Vision X- will be a supercar with a hybrid propulsion system, equipped with a V8 engine that will exceed 1,000 CV of power. It will be produced in Europe.

It should also be noted that although Lotus has not yet announced new fully electric models, the company assures that this type of vehicle will remain a fundamental pillar of its mobility strategy. The brand was a pioneer in incorporating an 800-volt architecture with the Eletre and the Emeya saloon, and it assures that it will continue innovating in this field. Today, its current range of electric models consists of the Eletre, the Emeya and the Evija supercar.