Lotus plots switch to range-extender hybrids

Lotus has abandoned its plans to become an all-electric brand by 2028, having just revealed it’s now racing to develop ‘super hybrids’ – or range-extenders.

The marque says its future powertrain will blend high performance with a fuel range of 1100km or more and that its switch away from an all-electric future has been dictated by slowing high-end EV sales.

“The penetration of?pure electric vehicles?in the luxury car segment is slow because luxury car engines are already very powerful, and the driving experience is quite similar, with eight-cylinder and 12-cylinder engines performing well,” Lotus CEO Feng Qingfeng told the Wall Street Journal.

According to Qingfeng, the power improvement of an EV over a V12 isn’t enough to interest wealthy consumers while Lotus drivers apparent average more than 30,000km a year, thereby making the range-extenders better-suited to the brand’s existing fanbase.

Despite switching to hybrids, Lotus will not compromise on technology and instil the super hybrids with a 900-volt electrical architecture, turbocharged engine and a large battery pack.

Even though it has announced that it will swap to electrified combustion engines, in the first nine months of 2024 Lotus sold 7543 vehicles – a respectable 134 per cent year-on-year increase, although even the jump in sales didn’t prevent the British brand posting a £346 million ($A770m) loss for the first half of 2024.

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