Lotus Eletre prices cut by up to $49,000

Lotus Cars Australia has taken an axe to the prices of the 2024 Lotus Eletre, which now starts at $189,990 plus on-road costs – $49,010 less than before.

Previously priced at $239,000 plus ORCs, the entry-level version of the famous British sports car brand’s first electric vehicle – and first SUV – will now enter production in the third quarter of this year (previously scheduled for 2025) ahead of first local deliveries as soon as late 2024.

Further up the range, the mid-spec Lotus Eletre S is now priced at $229,990 plus ORCs – down $39,010 from its previous price of $269,000 plus ORCs.

At the same time, it adds standard equipment including a glass roof, comfort seat pack (five seats) and Akoya White paint as standard for MY25 vehicles onwards.

However, LiDAR hardware has been removed from the standard build for MY25 cars onwards and is now included in the Highway Assist Pack option.

Lotus says feedback from Australia consumers placed little value in the standard inclusion of LiDAR in the entry-level Eletre.

“Most consumers doubt autonomous driving will be seen anytime soon in Australia and didn’t want to be paying for hardware they won’t be using,” said Lotus Cars Australia.

Both the standard Eletre and the Eletre S come with a 450kW/710Nm dual-motor all-wheel drive powertrain, and all three variants have a 112kW battery pack, 800V electrical architecture, 22kW onboard AC charger and capability for DC fast-charging at up to 350kW.

Finally, the top-shelf 675kW/985Nm version of the Lotus ‘Hyper SUV’, the Eletre R, reduces in price by $35,010 – from $315,000 to $279,990 plus ORCs. It lowers the claimed 0-100km/h sprunt time from 4.5 to just 2.95sec.

While we drove the Eletre in Australia in January, following its world premiere in March 2022 and its European launch in June 2023, production of Eletre S and Eletre R customer cars commenced in April and MY24 vehicles are due to ship in May ahead of their expected arrival here in late June.

Lotus says the MY25 price revision will be applied to customer cars already built, and that new customers will soon be able to configure their vehicles via its public website after placing a refundable reservation deposit to secure a slot in the build queue. Or they can visit a Lotus dealer in Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth.

No reason was given for the price cuts, Lotus Cars Australia saying only that “These revised prices further increase the appeal and value proposition of these technology laden vehicles”.

All Lotus Eletre vehicles are covered by a five-year/100,000km warranty, plus an eight-year/200,000km high-voltage component warranty.

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