Supercars have always been the jewel of the automotive industry, and now new forms of energy are giving more and more brands the possibility to challenge it. Everyone is thinking, what should a smart car look like in the era of intelligence? We see new brands can more freely define the appearance of a supercar, but it is also easier to lose oneself by blindly pursuing performance and handling. On the other hand, century-old supercar brands are trying to break free from the past and create a new possibility. As one of the three major supercar brands in the world, Lotus has always captured hearts with its unique avant-garde design and extreme handling performance, bringing classics like ESPRIT. Now, entering the era of intelligence, EMEYA is their answer.
Lotus intends to expand its scene from the track and road to everyday vehicles, starting with the EMEYA, the flagship model of the luxury pure electric lifestyle vehicle product matrix under Lotus, which will be launched in early 2024. From the currently official information released, this car far exceeds the industry level in extreme driving control, luxury configuration, and intelligence level, and will refresh the value benchmark of million-level pure electric luxury cars, which is very much worth looking forward to. Whether it’s design, performance, or intelligence level, Lotus always seeks breakthroughs, exploring the beauty of electric supercar cars in this era, just like EMEYA, when it runs with the wind, it is a flowing artistic feast.
Perhaps, it really can become the object of your heart in the million-level pure electric cars. This is still a pure Lotus. EMEYA comes from Hassaniya Arabic, meaning flowers and dreams in Chinese. Just looking at EMEYA itself is a kind of beauty enjoyment. Its shape has a charm that fascinates people at first sight. The golden ratio of EMEYA’s body is outlined by the line of beauty that extends from the front to the rear of the car. However, under the artistic appearance, the ultimate performance is telling the fact that it is still a pure Lotus.
Following the Lotus family’s supercar genes, EMEYA reproduces the iconic mid-engine layout of early Lotus sports cars, and the pore design inherited from EVIJA is also applied to the design of EMEYA. It is often only on those multi-million-dollar track-level models that we can see the shadow of the pore design. Not only that, the extreme lightweight and aerodynamics engraved in the Lotus genes are also continued in EMEYA. More accurately, Lotus has taken aerodynamics to a new level through EMEYA. EMEYA not only has four sets of Race-Aero airways, but also has the most active aerodynamics package in the industry. Through active intake grilles, active air dams, active rear diffusers, and active double-layer rear wings to balance drag, downforce, and lift. This makes EMEYA’s drag technology as low as 0.21, and has 150KG of supercar-level downforce, achieving a “ground-hugging” driving experience.
Lotus still achieves ultimate lightweight on EMEYA. For example, EMEYA uses the world’s lightest 10-piston carbon-ceramic composite brake system, with the weight of the carbon-ceramic brake disc only about 40% of the same size cast iron brake disc, removing excess material and reducing weight, increasing battery life and improving suspension response. At the same time, Lotus still demonstrates the beauty of lightness like wings by extensively using carbon fiber. The EMEYA R+ version comes standard with full carbon fiber exterior, with a total coverage area of 6.1 square meters. In order to allow drivers to enjoy the driving pleasure of the electric era without losing to the fuel era, EMEYA also features Lotus’ exclusive 6D intelligent chassis, making EMEYA both comfortable and controllable. This 6D intelligent chassis can accurately control six degrees of freedom, allowing EMEYA to maintain a stable body posture even during high-speed cornering. In October of this year, EMEYA set a new record for the fastest lap time for mass-produced electric vehicles at the Zhejiang Circuit with a time of 1 minute 35.728 seconds, breaking the record for mass-produced four-door sedans.
Even though it has been electrified, EMEYA is still a Lotus at its core, and it is this 75-year-old brand DNA that has allowed EMEYA to stand out in the monotonous performance and poor handling of the electric car market, instead of following the crowd, it has created a different image. EMEYA sets the benchmark for million-dollar pure electric sports cars with extreme definition. In any era, Lotus has always been a brand born for “drivers”. Today, it is injecting new connotations through electrification and intelligence. With leading technology, Lotus polishes every driving detail to perfection. Entering the era of intelligence, computing power will become the new horsepower, and Lotus will also see intelligent driving as the technological direction for the next decade. With the support of leading software and hardware, EMEYA will continue to lead the million-level intelligent driving experience. EMEYA has the industry’s top hardware capabilities. It is equipped with the industry’s largest number of 34 intelligent driving sensors, including 4 laser radars and 2 4D millimeter wave radars, combined with the industry’s top-level NVIDIA DRIVE Orin intelligent cockpit chip, with multiple computing power redundancy, giving it continuous intelligent driving upgrade capabilities. Especially the laser radar, its perception of nighttime environments and long-distance obstacles is significantly ahead of traditional millimeter wave radars.
Additionally, EMEYA is equipped with Lotus’ unique folding lidar and industry-leading streaming external rearview mirrors. It is worth mentioning that the hardware’s leadership is not only to support the speed of future software upgrades, but also to achieve the ultimate aerodynamics of Lotus.
Lotus is also practicing on EMEYA to give time back to the driver. EMEYA’s 800V high-voltage electric performance architecture features flash charging technology. According to the CLTC standard, charging for 5 minutes can increase the range by 180 kilometers. In addition, with Lotus’ flash charging technology, EMEYA can increase to 80% in less than fifteen minutes with only 10% battery left. Pursuing the ultimate is the essence of Lotus, but pursuing ultimate control is just one aspect of the Lotus brand. Starting from EMEYA, Lotus will show the other side of it to the public, which is the endless pursuit of aesthetics. Starting next year, Lotus will pioneer the launch of an art showcase in the automotive industry, inspired by Lotus models. This means that Lotus will attract fashion and art enthusiasts with an artistic immersive scene experience, allowing everyone to experience the unique lifestyle of Lotus. Lotus accelerates electrification, EMEYA may become a new growth engine In the past 75 years, Lotus has led the era through innovation and change. Entering the electrification era, Lotus proposed the ‘Vision80’ strategy, aiming to become the world’s leading luxury electric brand on its 80th anniversary. Guided by the ‘Vision80′ strategy, Lotus has taken early action to become the world’s first supercar brand to practice comprehensive electrification and intelligence. Now that the race is more than halfway through, Lotus has entered a period of accelerated brand development. In the first half of this year, Lotus achieved record performance and made several breakthroughs. Following EMIRA and ELETRE, the launch of EMEYA will not only consolidate Lotus’ “3+3” product matrix under the ‘Vision80′ strategy, but will also further interpret Lotus’ thoughts on luxury in the electrification era.
Next, Lotus will further expand its user base through EMEYA, especially attracting more female users’ attention. Currently, the proportion of female Lotus owners is around 5%-10%, and Lotus hopes this ratio will reach 20% after the launch of EMEYA. After accelerating electrification, global expansion has become a phased goal for the Lotus brand. By 2025, Lotus will introduce a new pure electric smart lifestyle vehicle for global users every year, while continuing to pursue a different driving experience for more users while creating champion products. In 1956, the Lotus Mark 11 was born and ELEVEN was unbeatable on the track, winning hundreds of championships in less than a year and winning the Le Mans Group Championship for two consecutive years. After that, Lotus officially began naming each mass-produced sports car with a word starting with “E” and each one was given a different mission. The first pure electric supercar EVIJA marked the first step in Lotus’ brand transformation to electrification; ELETRE, as Lotus’ first pure electric intelligent supercar SUV, vows to bring the ultimate driving pleasure of F1 racetracks to the electric vehicle industry. And EMEYA will open up a whole new niche market. Without a doubt, every car is the Lotus we know, always trying to break through everything like the wind, always pure.