Lotus hatching Evija successor with energy company

Lotus has forged a partnership with British Gas parent company Centrica to develop a follow-up to the Evija hypercar that's promised to 'redesign' electric car ownership.

There's sadly no details on the new sports car that will be created by the Geely-owned brand and the British energy supplier, but Lotus has revealed that the upcoming model will be a "core part in helping Lotus reach net zero carbon emissions".

As part of the plans, Centrica and Lotus will join forces to develop an all-new architecture for the car-maker that's said to make the car "an extension of the home".

No other details have been given but it's thought the new platform will enable the energy supplier to embed its charging technology into future battery-powered Lotus cars.

This includes a new vehicle-to-grid charging technique that will allow the power company to harness the energy stored in a parked car to feed electricity back into the grid at times of high demand.

It's thought the R&D collaboration will also help Lotus and Centrica create a rival to Tesla's Supercharger network.

Finally, Centrica will also share its low-carbon technologies to slash the car-maker's CO2 emissions, which could involve introducing solar and wind turbines at the car-maker's recently-upgraded Norfolk-based factory.

Commenting on the new partnership, Lotus boss Phil Popham said: “Our journey to net-zero carbon is absolutely lock-in-step with the Vision80 strategy for Lotus – taking us to eighty years of the business in 2028. By then, we will have transformed Lotus into a truly global player in the high-performance, high-technology sector.”