Introduction | Quad lidar + electronic rearview mirror
One day in March, Che Jujun went to Zhongchun Road to repair the car (Model S central control screen leakage problem), I accidentally discovered that there was a Lotus center nearby.
▲Picture source: Cheju.com
Looking closer, it is a half black and half transparent square box, dotted with Lotus’s unique yellow logo, which gives it a sense of technology. children and personality.
What does LOTUS NYO on the door mean? The staff explained that before Lotus entered China, the "Lotus" trademark had been registered by Young Lotus, a Chinese car company. In order to avoid confusion, the Chinese translation of LOTUS is Lotus, and NYO is added to the English suffix, which is pronounced as NEW - brand new Lotus car.
Che Jujun checked it and found that part of it was right. Lotus's official website in the United States and other overseas countries displays: LOTUS, and its official website in China displays: LOTUS NYO. The description of the special edition in English is genuine.
As for the trademark, it is still uncertain. According to the official website of the National Trademark Office, Zhejiang Youth Passenger Car Group Co., Ltd. applied twice to register the "Lotus Little Prince" in April 2011, but the result was that "the application was rejected, not accepted, etc."
Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co., Ltd. has applied for the "Lotus" trademark six times since 2018, all of which are Category 12 "vehicles." Most of the results were also rejected, but there was one record in November 2022: the trademark transfer approval certificate was printed and sent. The latest record in January 2023 is: trademark registration applications are being accepted. I wonder if the "Lotus" trademark will eventually return to Geely?
▲Picture source: Cheju.com
In the center of the hall is a Sola Yellow Eletre, shining brightly.
The pronunciation of Eletre should be: [i''letr?], one word covers all the common pronunciations of the letter e. It can be said that it is also one of the words with the highest proportion of e-containing words in English.
Some people may ask: Why did Lotus choose this name? Because all its cars starting with E since 1956.
The story goes like this: In 1948, the first Lotus car came out, and the founder Colin Chapman, who was an engineer, gave him a very scientific name: Mark 1. In 1956, The Mark 11, launched sequentially, won 148 championships in one year with its ultra-low wind resistance, lightweight and aerodynamic design.
When the media reported on this legendary car, Colin found that the Mark 11 was easily confused with the Mark II, so he directly replaced 11 with the English Eleven. Since then, all Lotus cars have started with E: Elite, Elan, Europe, Esprit, Elise, Evija, Emira...
It is also a coincidence that E fits perfectly with the current wave of electric vehicles. Therefore, as Lotus’s first mass-produced electric car, Eletre uses three E’s in one go, with the E content being as high as 50%. It seems to be demonstrating its determination to achieve full electrification by 2028.
▲Picture source: Cheju.com
The overall shape of the Eletre is quite eye-catching. At first glance, the front of the car looks like a Lamborghini Urus, and the headlights have the charm of the Ferrari 458 2016 model. The super luxurious interior taste is there, but the electric taste is missing. Especially the huge air intake. Although there are black technologies such as automatic grilles, it still feels like there is a big heart of 4.8T under the engine.
As you approach the vehicle, the pop-up door handles and frameless windows can instantly pull you back into the ranks of smart electric vehicles.
According to reports, its body has seven sets of air ducts, which can provide 90kg of downforce to ensure its stability at high speeds. This is one of Lotus's ancestral stunts. But to be honest, the "pore design" is more obvious on the concept car Evija, and it is a bit lost on the Eletre if you don't pay attention.
▲Eletre’s lidar: front roof, left and right wheel arches, rear roof
What really makes Eletre unique are the 4 lidars that come standard on the body. They are located in the center of the front of the roof, the left and right wheel eyebrows, and the rear of the roof. The first three lidars are all of automatic retractable design.
It usually shrinks inside the car body to ensure regularity and aesthetics; when work is needed while driving, it will automatically pop up to ensure a good field of view and environmental scanning.
This kind of foldable lidar is currently the only one in mass-produced cars. At the same time, this is a tribute to the flipped headlights of the legendary Lotus sports car Elan.
Che Jujun feels that compared with Weilai’s fixed roof design, this design can appropriately reduce wind resistance and reduce visual abruptness; compared with Xiaopeng’s left and right fog lights, Designed to increase detection field of view and reduce post-collision repair costs. I just hope that the mechanism of retracting and retracting back and forth is robust enough.
▲Picture source: Cheju.com
Eletre's interior is well-handled: it is more luxurious than Tesla's simple style, but not as eye-catching as Maybach. The cool colors frame the sense of technology, and the rose gold light strips add luxurious warmth.
The shift lever is said to be the first time in the industry to use liquid metal technology, giving it a more jewelry-like texture. It's just that the size is smaller than expected. I want to retain the smooth feel of the traditional position and the smoothness of the knob and lever.
Che Jujun likes the steering wheel design of Lotus the most. At first glance, it appears to be a flat bottom design for easy entry; in fact, if you look closely, you will see that it is a quasi-hexagonal design, which will provide better grip. There is a return mark on the top, which makes it easy to know whether the direction has returned to the correct direction after parking, which is good news for patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder.
KEF audio provides 15 speakers, which is not many compared to competing products, but it is better because the maximum power can reach 1380W, which is enough to provide shocking sound quality.
Compared with previous Lotus cars, the interior is already at its peak. This has been verified on the Emira. It is said that when it debuted in the UK, fans lined up in a long line and almost burst into tears because they liked the new interior.
▲Picture source: Cheju.com
Lotus cars are meant to be driven.
Eletre doesn’t look big, but it feels big when driving. Spacious space is a good thing, but the external sense of space needs to be adapted to. This reminded Che Jujun of the time when he tested the XC90 at the beginning of that year. Especially when driving in the congested urban area of ??Shanghai, he was still a little nervous.
The test drive is the S+ version priced at 828,000. It accelerates from 0 to 100 kilometers in 4.5 seconds, which is slightly slower than the 3.9 seconds of the Tesla Model . It’s even slightly faster than the 4.4-second Model S that Che Jujun drives daily.
At this time, you need to pay special attention to controlling the speed of the vehicle. After all, the bustling urban area is not the place to show performance. The brakes are also quite stable, and you won't feel any suddenness when sitting in the back row; however, the brake pedal feels heavier than that of ordinary cars, requiring more effort to step on the pedal, and female users need to adapt.
▲Picture source: Lotus official APP
Lotus has three major features: lightweight, chassis tuning, and downforce.
What is surprising is that Eletre is heavier than competing products: the curb weight is 20kg more than Hiphi X and 227kg more than Model X. One of the main reasons is that it uses a 112kWh battery pack, which has more than ten kilowatt-hours more power than competing products. It is naturally heavier, which also causes it to accelerate slightly slower.
As a balance, Eletre emphasizes "visual lightweight": in addition to using aviation-grade aluminum and new carbon fiber, it also introduces the design theme of "light wings" in the interior, hoping that users can still visually feel Maintaining a lightweight impression. ?
▲Picture source: Cheju.com
Eletre has a larger battery, but its battery life is 50km shorter than Model X, indicating that there is still room for improvement in its soft power in BMS.
Fortunately, Eletre’s chassis tuning is quite sophisticated. After all, Tesla’s first car used the chassis of Lotus Elise. The unique 6D chassis technology and track tuning make Eletre's driving extremely smooth, even giving it the texture of a fuel vehicle chassis. What’s rare is that none of the fellow passengers said they felt motion sickness, unlike some electric cars.
Perhaps that weight is used on the chassis?
▲Picture source: Cheju.com
Officially, Eletre used the industry-leading streaming rearview mirror for the first time, but the one we tested was an ordinary rearview mirror. After asking, I found out that this black technology requires 16,000 yuan to own.
But it also has quite practical features: the Lotus intelligent driving system, the standard basic version includes functions such as ACC, LKA, TSR, lane changing with lights, and full-scenario parking. For the latter two functions, Model X will cost an additional 32,000 to purchase the enhanced version of Autopilot.
What is even more surprising is that when you order a car now, you will get a two-year smart driving Premium version, worth 45,000. Functions include navigation-assisted driving on expressways, autonomous lane changes, and automatic entry and exit of ramps.
Che Jujun thought about it for a while, and the reason is simple: because Eletre’s hardware has enough redundancy, the software is also flexible enough; or it wants to quickly open up the lidar market by letting users use it for free for two years. , increasing familiarity and dependence, which is equivalent to educating the market to counter Tesla's full vision solution.
After all, the hardware with dual Orin-X chips and 508TOPS computing power is like traveling at night without using it.
▲Picture source: Cheju.com
Eletre’s Hyper OS system is based on the third-generation Snapdragon cockpit platform, with real-time rendering and smooth operation. Unfortunately, the interface design is not user-friendly enough and feels a bit like Windows. During the test drive, the human-computer interaction system was not turned on and required manual operation on the steering wheel, which was not very convenient.
I hope that this function will be unlocked through OTA when it is delivered, so that the distinguished first batch of car owners can have a smooth conversation by calling: "Hello, Lotus".
Finally, Chejujun put up a comparison table between Eletre and two competing products:
Cheju Summary
In 2022, the delivery volume of Lotus in China will be only 15 cars, only 1/10 of the niche supercar McLaren. This is extremely inconsistent with the background of its acquisition by Geely. It must regain its dignity on its home court.
As its first mass-produced electric vehicle, Eletre naturally has high hopes. To put it simply, its focus and selling point is on the sense of technology, and the performance of lidar deserves the most attention; the dynamics are mixed, and there is still room for optimization; the vehicle-machine system is a shortcoming, and may be criticized by the first batch of users.
Like all the first electric cars made by traditional car companies, you can find the familiar feel of a fuel car in Eletre, as well as the flaws caused by an incomplete revolution. The ultimate reason is: the hardware is hard enough, but the software is still too soft.
The new Model X has been delivered recently. Although Eletre is 50,000 cheaper, Tesla's brand power, charging network and service channels, and the possibility of continued price cuts in the future will put pressure on the fledgling Eletre.
In addition, the economic downturn has caused wealthy people to start budgeting carefully. At this time, the Hiphi X flagship version, which is 150,000 cheaper than the Eletre, is also a strong competitor: the more topical wingspan door, the future design similar to the FF91, comparable product strength, and the reputation of a certain user base, will also Divert some potential customers.
If Eletre also releases a standard version priced at 660,000 yuan, the sales volume may be 666.
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