Lotus’ wild 200mph ‘Theory 1’ EV signals return to form for the brand
Lotus has unveiled a new EV concept which it calls “Theory 1,” a lightweight(-ish) electric sportscar concept inspired by the Lotus Esprit with nearly 1,000hp and capable of speeds up to 200mph.
Here at Electrek, we see and report on a lot of wild EV concepts. These concepts are often accompanied by long treatises on how the design incorporates various “core principles,” unnecessary branding of things that will never make it to production, and buzzwords aplenty.
In a way, the Theory 1 is no different. My eyes glazed over at the 2,000+ words in Lotus’ press release before reaching the table of technical specs.
And yet, there is still something here, because this is Lotus – a company with an incredibly significant motorsport heritage… and a significant electric car heritage too.
Lotus is the company that provided the lightweight “gliders” on which the original Tesla Roadster, the car that started the modern electric vehicle era, was built.
And lately, Lotus has gotten into electric cars on its own, with the $2million Evija hypercar and the consumer-focused Eletre SUV and Emeya Hyper-GT.
But you’ll notice – one of those things is not like the others. Despite being a company famous for its focus on small cars, owing to founder Colin Chapman’s theory to “simplify, then add lightness,” the Eletre and Emeya are both over 5,500lbs, more than twice the weight of the original Tesla Roadster.
And so, Lotus’ new Theory 1 – packed full of probably-unrealistic concept features, but also clearly going downmarket from the Evija’s eyewatering $2million pricetag – could signal somewhat of a return to form for the wayward small-car maker.
That’s because its curb weight is listed at a much more reasonable 1600kg, or 3,527lbs. This is still hefty compared to the absolute lightest vehicles on the road right now, but it’s on the lower end of most powerful sportscars available today (including lighter than the Evija), quite low compared to other EVs, and significantly less than some ridiculous gas-powered chonkers.
It’s also a lot more than the original Lotus Esprit which the Theory 1 takes inspiration from, which began at around 2,000lbs. But later versions of the same vehicle weighed as much as around 3,000lbs, not too far off from the Theory 1.
In that relatively small package, Lotus claims it has fit some great performance specs.
Its 986hp powertrain is capable of sprinting 0-100km/h (62mph) in less than 2.5 seconds, with a top speed of 320km/h (198mph).
Energy comes from a 70kWh battery with a 250 mile range. This is a little smaller than some of the larger batteries we’ve seen around (the Eletre has a 112kWh battery, for example), but that’s the benefit of having a light, low-slung vehicle.
But specs don’t tell everything about how a vehicle feels to drive. And Lotus is promising to bring exceptional driving dynamics to this vehicle, through methods like including the motor and battery as stressed members and mounting the rear wing directly to the suspension assembly.
It also wants to use steer-by-wire, a technology which has been thought about for a long time but only recently has made its way into production vehicles, like the Lexus RZ and Cybertruck.
But perhaps the most striking part of the driver experience on the Theory 1 is its 3-seat design, seating the driver in the center of the vehicle, similar to the famed McLaren F1.
The car’s light weight comes from extensive use of advanced materials like carbon fiber and titanium, which are sure to boost the price of this vehicle if they make it to production. In that previously-mentioned 2,000 words, there’s plenty of talk about 3D printing and recycled materials as well.
But Lotus says that it wants to reduce the amount of “A-surface materials” – those you can touch – down to 10 or fewer, compared to the 100-or-so in most cars.
“There’s been this period of maximalism, and people having to do one-upmanship and go above, above, above. And I think we’ve reached that point where it plateaus in stylistic terms, and also in the demonstration of tech. We’re not in a crazy numbers race with this car.”
-Lotus design VP Ben Payne, as quoted by Wired
So the original Lotus philosophy of “simplify, then add lightness” is certainly present in this concept, signaling a return to form for the brand after a few years of wandering in the desert.
Finally, while we are just talking about a concept here, we’ve certainly seen plenty of EV concepts make their way into production in some way or another. Even particularly wild ones like the BMW Vision EfficientDynamics concept ended up being made into the BMW i8 sportscar.
So we might even see this Theory 1 show up on the road at some point. But, even if we don’t, at least it shows that Lotus is back to thinking about smaller cars (as they should have been all along…), and we’ll hopefully get a real EV sportscar out of them in a few years.
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Mitsubishi is partnering with Ample and Yamoto Transports to deploy an innovative new battery swap network for electric cars in its Japanese home market — but it’s not just for electric cars. Mitsubishi Fuso commercial trucks are getting in on the action, too!
Despite a number of early EV adopters with an overdeveloped concept of ownership, battery swap technology has proven to be both extremely effective and extremely positive to the overall EV ownership experience. And when you see how simple it is to add hundreds of miles of driving in just 100 seconds — quicker, in many cases, than pumping a tank of liquid fuel into an ICE-powered car — you might come around, yourself.
That seems to be what Mitsubishi thinks, anyway, and they’re hoping they’ll be your go-to choice when it’s time to electrify your regional and last-mile commercial delivery fleet(s) by launching a multi-year pilot program to deploy more than 150 battery-swappable commercial electric vehicles and 14 modular battery swapping stations across Tokyo, where the company plans to showcase its “five minute charging” tech in full view of hundreds of commercial fleets and, crucially, the executives of the companies that own and manage them.
A truck like the Mitsubishi eCanter typically requires a full night of AC charging to top off its batteries, and at least an hour or two on DC charging in Japan, according to Fuso. This joint pilot by Mitsubishi, Mitsubishi Fuso Trucks, and Ample aims to circumvent this issue of forced downtime with its swappable batteries, supporting vehicle uptime by delivering a full charge within minutes. The move is meant to encourage the transport industry’s EV shift while creating a depository of stored energy that can be deployed to the grid in the event of a natural disaster — something Mitsubishi in Japan has been working on for years.
Trucks like the eCanter already serve a number of roles throughout the global truck market, including municipal waste collection, regional delivery support, and more.
The pilot is backed by Tokyo Metropolitan Government’s “Technology Development Support Project for Promoting New Energy,” with local delivery operator Yamato Transport testing swappable EVs for delivery operations on both its eCanter light-duty trucks and Mitsubishi Minicab kei-class electric vans.
Electrek’s Take
Electrifying the commercial truck fleet is a key part of decarbonizing city truck fleets – not just here in the US, but around the world. I called the eCanter, “a great product for moving stuff around densely packed city streets,” and eliminating the corporate fear of EV charging in the wild just makes it an even better product for that purpose.
Here’s hoping we see more “right size” electric solutions like this one (and more battery swapping tech) in small towns and tight urban environments stateside somewhat sooner than later.
SOURCES | IMAGES: Mitsubishi, Fuso.
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After becoming the first European brand to offer fully electric versions of every model it sells — and at the same price as the ICE models — Opel is going even further, with a new, AWD electric SUV that should give American Jeep fans hope for a new electric Cherokee!
Now part of the Stellantis, rather than GM portfolio of brands, Rüsselsheim-based Opel showed off the first official pictures of its new Opel Grandland Electric AWD — the company’s first all-electric SUV to feature the “Blitz” performance emblem and all-wheel drive.
“Our top-of-the-range Grandland SUV is a milestone for Opel,” says Opel CEO Florian Huettl. “Customers already have a choice of battery-electric drive, plug-in hybrid and hybrid with 48-volt technology. We are now offering even more choice with the Grandland Electric AWD and thus ensuring that our customers can enjoy maximum efficiency and safety in diverse weather and road conditions, combined with plenty of driving fun.”
Stellantis gets it right in Europe
Opel says its new, AWD Grandland is its most aerodynamically efficient model yet, with a drag coefficient (Cd) of just 0.278. That efficiency, paired with similarly efficient electric motors and a 73 kWh li-ion NMC battery give the electric crossover a 501 km (311 mile) WLTP range, while a combined 325 hp and 375 lb-ft of torque should make for suitably spirited acceleration to go along with all that green cred.
Suspension and handling, too, are promised to deliver on what Opel claims is a “typical” Teutonic driving experience in the Grandland AWD:
Both driving pleasure and comfort are further emphasized by dampers with frequency selective damping technology. This unique technology comes as standard on the Grandland Electric AWD and incorporates a second hydraulic circuit in the damper chamber to mechanically adapt the damping force in relation to the frequency. Depending on the situation, road surface conditions and driving style, it enables different damping characteristics for comfortable gliding at high frequencies – i.e. with short impacts such as on cobblestones or a manhole cover – as well as for a sporty, ambitious driving style with more direct contact with the road at low frequencies. The Grandland reacts even more immediately and directly to any command from the driver and, as is typical for Opel, remains stable when braking, cornering and at high speeds on the Autobahn.
OPEL PRESS RELEASE
The Opel Grandland Electric AWD ships with four standard drive modes that include “normal,” eco, sport, and 4WD mode, which simulates locking axles and true 4×4 off-road performance. The ESP and traction control systems adopt specific settings to enhance grip in 4WD mode as well, and maximum power and torque are instantly available.
Electrek’s Take
As you maybe could tell by now, feeding European Stellantis EVs into an AI image generator and asking it to “make them into Jeeps” is one of my new favorite things to do. This new Opel is no different, and the resulting image (above) paired with the models’ stated specs give me hope that the next wave of Jeep EVs will do better than the Wagoneer S at attracting buyers. All they really need, I think, is the right name — and the right price, to be winners.
SOURCE | IMAGES: Opel.
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Like a 90s “gifted” kid that was supposed to be a lot of things, the electric Jeep Wagoneer S never really found its place — but with dealers discounting the Jeep brands forward-looking flagship by nearly $25,000, it might be time to give the go-fast Wagoneer S a second look.
SKIP THE STORY: get straight to the deals.
Whether we’re talking about Mercedes-Benz, Cerberus, Fiat, or even Enzo Ferrari, outsiders have labeled Jeep as a potentially premium brand that could, “if managed properly,” command luxury-level prices all over the globe. That hasn’t happened, and Stellantis is just the latest in a long line of companies to sink massive capital into the brand only to realize that people will not, in fact, spend Mercedes money on a Jeep.
That said, the Jeep Wagoneer S is not a bad car (and neither is its totally different, hideously massive, ICE-powered Wagoneer sibling, frankly). Built on the same Stellantis STLA Large vehicle platform that underpins the sporty Charger Daytona EVs, the confusingly-named Wagoneer S packs dual electric motors putting out almost 600 hp. That’s good enough to scoot the ‘ute 0 to 60 mph in a stomach-turning 3.5 seconds and enough, on paper, to convince Stellantis executives that they had developed a real, market-ready alternative to the Tesla Model Y.
With the wrong name and a sky-high starting price of $66,995 (not including the $1,795 destination fee), however, that demand didn’t materialize, leaving the Wagoneer S languishing on dealer lots across the country.
That could be about to change, however, thanks to big discounts on Wagoneer S being reported at CDJR dealers in several states, according to our friends at the Car Dealership Guy podcast.
- Jimmy Britt Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram in Georgia, has a Wagoneer S with an MSRP of $67,590 listed at $43,104 ($24,486 off)
- In Florida, Taverna Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram Fiat has a $67,590 Wagoneer S slashed to $43,138 ($24,452 off)
- Chris Nikel Chrysler Jeep Dodge Ram Fiat in Oklahoma has a Wagoneer S listed for $43,425 ($24,165 off)
“Stellantis bet big on electric versions of iconic American brands like Jeep and Dodge, but consumers aren’t buying the premise,” writes CDG’s Marcus Amick. “(Stellantis’ dealer body) is now stuck with expensive EVs that need huge discounts to move, eating into already thin margins while competitors focus on [more] profitable gas-powered vehicles.”
All of which is to say: if you’ve found yourself drawn to the Jeep Wagoneer S, but couldn’t quite stomach the $70,000+ window stickers, you might want to check in with your local Jeep dealer and see how you feel about it at a JCPenneys-like 30% off!
Jeep Wagoneer S gallery
SOURCES | IMAGES: Car Dealership Guy, CarScoops, and CarsDirect.
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