Lotus Eletre R 2024 Review

There are three models in the 2024 Lotus Eletre range, although for now only two are available in Australia.

The basic (if you can call it that) Eletre is yet to be priced but will likely come in somewhere north of $220,000 plus on-road costs for the dual-motor model.

That same drivetrain is available in the Eletre S, which costs $269,000 plus ORCs, while the top-of-the-range Eletre R tested here is priced from $315,000 plus ORCs and boosts outputs to 675kW/985Nm courtesy of a more powerful rear motor.

The most obvious rival to the Eletre is the similarly electric BMW iX, though its range stops – the 455kW/1100Nm M60 (from $233,400) – where the Eletre starts.

Otherwise, you’re looking at quasi-electrified PHEV offerings like the Porsche Cayenne Turbo E-Hybrid (from $288,400) and the Range Rover P460e (from $254,500).

We’ll overlook the entry 2024 Lotus Eletre for now because details are still to be finalised and instead focus on the S and R. Broadly speaking, the Eletre S is more focused on luxury and the Eletre R errs toward the sporty side, although each does a decent line covering both attributes.

The Lotus Eletre S comes with 22-inch alloy wheels (20s or 21s are no-cost options), air suspension, adjustable dampers, a head-up display, four-zone climate control, soft-close doors, powered and heated front seats, powered steering column adjustment, Matrix LED headlights, powered tailgate, ambient lighting, smart key entry, wireless phone charger and a 23-speaker KEF sound system.

The Electre R knocks that sound system back to 15 speakers but it’s still by KEF, while also scoring rear-wheel steering and active anti-roll bars.

You can, of course, go mad with options and colour/trim choices. There’s a vast range of wheels, seat finishes and interior themes that can quickly customise your Eletre to your tastes – while appropriately simplifying and adding lightness to your bank balance.

A Type 2-to-Type 2 charging cable is included as well as a home trickle charger that can plug into household power points.

The Eletre is covered by a five-year/150,000km warranty, with the high-voltage battery covered by a separate eight-year/200,000km warranty that guarantees at least 70 per cent of the original capacity.

While Lotus is working on a capped-price service program, details haven’t been confirmed yet, but they should be available closer to the first customer deliveries in May/June 2024.

Lotus says the official service intervals are two years or 30,000km but it will be encouraging owners to get an annual check-up.

As with rivals, the 2024 Lotus Eletre hasn’t undergone NCAP testing, but it does come loaded with the latest active and passive safety systems.

There are seven airbags: dual front airbags, a centre airbag up front, front side airbags and curtain airbags down each side.

The Eletre also gets autonomous emergency braking (AEB), blind spot warning, lane keep assist, rear collision warning, speed sign recognition, tyre pressure sensors and a driver monitoring system.

Tech has never been a strong point of the brand – the emphasis has always been on driving excitement – but it’s front and centre in the 2024 Lotus Eletre.

There’s a sizeable 15.1-inch central infotainment screen that nicely displays the 360-degree camera, navigation and graphics for the various drive modes.

It’s a crisp display that also appears to take some inspiration from Tesla in its swipe-and-touch functionality. Best to familiarise yourself with the menus, too, to save going down digital dead ends, although a main menu button is a handy saviour.

The 15-speaker KEF sound system is vibrant and punchy with a level of clarity few cars come close to. The bass is tight and pronounced, the high notes clear, but there’s no volume dial and the toggle on the steering wheel is slow to make big adjustments.

In a Tesla-esque move, you can adjust the volume and other parameters using virtual slider bars, however you won’t be adjusting the bass and treble because the settings are fixed. Audio supplier KEF apparently says they’ve been optimised, so can’t be changed.

Which is all good and well, but it doesn’t cater for different tastes – it’s a bit like a chef who won’t do a steak well done because he or she thinks it should be served medium rare.

There are also slim 12.6-inch strips in front of the driver and front passenger. For the driver it teams with the head-up display to show key information, from speed and navigation directions to drive mode settings, while the passenger gets an up-front readout of infotainment settings.

Those in the rear also get a touch-screen to adjust the ventilation, while gadgets can be topped up from USB-C ports front and rear.

The 2024 Lotus Eletre R gets the most powerful dual-motor system that makes a combined 675kW and 985Nm.

While the front motor is shared with the Eletre S, the rear motor is exclusive to the R and pairs with a two-speed transmission to boost acceleration and top speed (a similar strategy to the Porsche Taycan and Audi e-tron GT).

The power figure, in particular, is the headline act. It’s a huge number and the only cars we can find that best it are the Ferrari SF90 (about 750kW) and upcoming Lamborghini Revuelto (746kW), each a hybrid.

No surprises, then, that the Eletre R accelerates with the ferocity of a supercar; it’d trounce every Lotus sports car ever made in the traffic light grand prix.

That said, in Tour mode it’s borderline relaxed and a moment is required for the torque to swell and the thrust to begin, 2.6 tonnes of large SUV doing its best to spoil the performance party.

There are steering paddles but they operate a bit differently to other performance cars and EVs.
The left one adjusts between four levels of regenerative braking, from coasting to medium motor braking.

The right paddle toggles on either end to scroll through five pre-set drive modes – Track, Tour, Sport, Range and Off-Road.

A wet road also adds to the excitement. Even in the dry the 23-inch Pirellis were eager to break traction and in the wet there are hold-on-tight moments if you unleash the full fury of those twin motors.

Dial up Sport and the responses are livelier, the full whack of grunt kicking in sooner, and in Track mode – where the lower of the rear transmission ratios is in play sooner – there’s serious pace whenever you punch the throttle.

The Eletre R does a terrific job of masking all those kilos – in a straight line, at least.

The 2024 Lotus Electre and Eletre S have a claimed WLTP range of 600km. The Eletre R we drove drops that to 490km and you can expect much less than that if you’re going to regularly enjoy all 675kW.

Something approaching 400km should be doable in everyday driving, though.

The Eletre R also has charge ports on either side of the car behind the front wheels, however only one does the faster DC charging.

The AC charge rate is 22kW, which is double most EVs, so anyone with a 22kW three-phase charger at home will get a full charge in a little under six hours. For the more common 7.4kW wallboxes you’re looking at about 16 hours.

At full whack on a 350kW public DC charger you can top it up from 10-80 per cent in about 22 minutes.

If you’re expecting a Lotus in the traditional sense then forget it, but if you’ve read this far then you’ve hopefully worked that out already. The 2024 Lotus Eletre R is big, heavy and brutally fast – all of which impact how it deals with bumps and corners.

It’s a very different Lotus, one that muscles up with extreme performance rather than relying on the finer details for driving tingles.

This is a LandCruiser-like chunk of SUV in size and weight and there’s no hiding that in any of the drive modes. While the tyres hang on with supreme grip, you’re also well aware that you’re coaxing a lot of metal to change direction.

While the air suspension is typically refreshingly compliant, a sharp edge or speed hump can swiftly remind you of how little air there is between the rims and the road.

Track mode seriously sharpens things but makes for more athletic responses, something that works well with the sharp steering and high grip levels. It also brings the active rear spoiler into play sooner, providing a visual reminder in the rear-vision mirror of the dynamic equation.

There’s also an Individual mode that allows you to tailor the various settings to your preference, but, again, it’s a very different Lotus in the way it goes about its business.

There’s an Off-Road mode in the driver-selectable settings, but we wouldn’t be bothering.

It perches the 2024 Lotus Eletre R high on its air suspension for added clearance and adjusts the traction control to maximise grip on slippery surfaces, but those Pirelli P Zero tyres are more Phillip Island than Birdsville Track.

There are hints of sports car in the 2024 Lotus Eletre R, but it doesn’t run too deep. Pillarless windows look sleek, for example, and the glass is double-glazed to keep the cabin hushed.

The Eletre R is also big by five-seat SUV standards (it’s not available with three rows of seats, but you can option a more luxurious four-seat layout) and enormous by Lotus standards.

It’s the first time Lotus has offered a five-door (although decades ago the brand sold the Carlton four-door sedan) and that means loads of space up front for those cocooned in the body-hugging seats that add some race sass.

The near-flat floor in the back provides ample foot space and teams with terrific headroom to easily accommodate adults, while ambient strip lighting sprawling throughout the cabin is a nice touch and the finishes and materials are all top notch.

The boot has a 688-litre capacity, although drops to 611 litres if you choose the four-seat option that adds a big centre console between the rear occupants.

It’s also a fairly shallow load area but benefits from a 40/20/40 split-fold to swallow larger items, while there’s also a nicely trimmed 46-litre frunk up front that’s perfect for charging cables and valuables. The Eletre is rated to tow 2250kg.

If you want purity then you’ll be disappointed in the Lotus Eletre. There’s nothing lightweight, simple or subtle about it.

Instead, it’s all about ferocious pace, space and lashings of luxury, which to be fair are the sorts of things buyers of big-budget SUVs typically gravitate to.

For those chasing an all-electric go-fast SUV then the Eletre R arrives with a compelling performance hit for a unique big-power EV experience with an exclusive badge.

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