Payne said: “Eletre is the biggest stretch for the traditional Lotus customer. Looking at where we’ve gone, we had to try very hard to put as much sports car DNA into that product as possible. Bearing in mind its size and proportion, for some people, that’s a stretch. I think, in the design team’s eyes, there are an awful lot of features on that car that really sell it as the hypercar of SUVs.
“Coming on to Emeya, we want to continue that. We’re quite mindful that Lotus needs to build an identity that makes sense and we have a properly joined-up aesthetic from the sports cars to the lifestyle product, so it looks like one complete range. At the minute, obviously, that’s in mid-process.”
Nonetheless, Payne wants to avoid “cookie-cutter” styling for future Lotus models. These include the Type 134 – a Porsche Macan Electric rival that is “well in development” – and the Type 135, an electric successor to the Elise.
The Eletre and the Emeya form “a springboard” for these models – as well as what comes after that, which is “five years out”. Payne would not be drawn on the form these cars will take but confirmed that “super-exciting” design work has begun.
The Emeya will enter production later this year, with the first European deliveries scheduled to start this autumn.
Prices start at £94,950, rise to £107,450 for the mid-tier S car and hit £129,950 for the 905bhp R model.
Emeya could spawn world’s quickest estate
An estate-bodied Lotus Emeya is on the cards, which would effectively give the marque a fourth ‘lifestyle’ model line and serve as a rival to the Porsche Taycan Sport Turismo.
Design chief Ben Payne declined to confirm whether plans for a shooting brake Emeya exist, but he said: “Let’s just say I know a lot of creative people that these kinds of products appeal to. The design team is always looking at the next opportunity and how we can do something a bit different and get more [opportunities]. Is it in the product plan? I can’t comment on that.”