2024 Lotus Emeya: Price, performance and specs

We know Lotus’s new era of styling language fairly well by now. It’s all about smoothness, ‘porosity’ and all the clever aero solutions that entails. Unsurprisingly, the Emeya is by and large Eletre but squashed into a four-door coupe, with the differentiations of double-layered day-running lights, a more contoured bonnet and sloping coupe-esque roof, though that’s not far off the Eletre as is.

Also like the Eletre, there’s a good amount of active aero, with a motorised grille, rear diffuser and rear spoiler adjusting with speed. In short, it’s not quite – in Lotus VP of design Ben Payne’s words – “a Lotus like you’ve never seen before” but it’s still a quite a thing.

Inside the Lotus Emeya – 55-inch AR display

The inside is very Eletre too, with a very un-Lotus look of high quality, high technology and crisp modern design, with plenty of sustainable and sustainably sourced materials like PVD aluminium and recycled fabrics. With this being the fourth new Lotus of the Geely era, it’s becoming the norm for sure, even with glue smell and exposed welds firmly in our recent memory.

The big news inside is that there’s a giant 55-inch head-up display augmenting the infotainment screen, and slim driver and passenger displays. It effectively uses the windscreen as a canvas for navigation, performance and other important driver information. So in other words, it’s a bit of a bonfire dousing for BMW and its Neue Klasse, then.

2024 Lotus Emeya: Performance, range and specs

Under the skin of course is a bespoke modular architecture shared with the Eletre, with a 102kWh battery feeding all four wheels via two electric motors, for as much as 905PS (666kW) in the top-billing Emeya R. Yes, you read that right. That should make the Emeya R good for 0-62mph in under 2.8 seconds and a top speed of 159mph.

Don’t worry, slower (but still fast) versions will be available in the standard Emeya and Emeya S, offering more range at a lower price. Both the Emeya and Emeya S will pack 605PS (450kW) and deliver between 310 and 379 miles of range and get to 62mph in 4.15 seconds on the way to a 155mph top speed. What splits the standard Emeya and the S dynamically? Lightweight brakes and 21-inch wheels, instead of the standard 20-inchers. Range for the R is predictably lower thanks to the high-performance rear motor and two-speed transmission, with 270 to 310 miles stated.

What is a hefty battery can happily be juiced up fairly rapidly. A max charge speed of 350kW means it can regain over 90 miles of range in as little as five minutes, while it can go from 10 to 80 per cent charge in as little as 18 minutes.

Weight and handling are of course primary concerns when it comes to Lotus. The former figure isn’t readily available, though we can infer that this won’t be a lightweight car. The Eletre isn’t either, but that’s turning out to be a bit of a revelation in terms of its dynamics and comfort, as Lotus promised. This should be no different, with a high-tech computer-controlled air suspension system that can adapt based on sensors that ‘feel’ the road 1,000 times a second.

Lotus Emeya: Rivals, price and delivery date

So what’s the point of the Emeya? Well, it’s arguably entering a more crowded marketplace than the Eletre did, in that there aren’t many all-electric super SUVs yet, are there? By contrast, the Emeya has to do battle with the Porsche Taycan, Tesla Model S and Audi E-Tron GT. Soon, it’ll have its cousin the Polestar 5 to fight too, while Jaguar’s plans to bring an electric super saloon to market are no secret. This one had better be good, then and if first impressions of the Eletre are anything to go by, it should be.

The Lotus Emeye is shortly to go into production, with first deliveries expected to begin in the third quarter of this year. Prices start from £94,950 for the standard Emeya and jump to £107,450 for the Emeya S. The full-fat, 905PS (666kW) Emeya R – which is aimed squarely at the Porsche Taycan Turbo S, Tesla Model S Plaid and Audi RS E-Tron GT – starts from £129,950. If that sounds like keen pricing, consider that the Taycan costs over £160,000, with the incoming Turbo GT set to command and even taller price. The Lotus, if it's as good as we hope, could be a bit of a bargain for its segment. We'll get behind the wheel as soon as we can.