Four years ago, when I first saw the Lotus Evija electric hypercar at the Goodwood Festival of Speed, I had assumed it would ultimately remain a concept car, a beautiful one, but one that would never see tarmac in anger. Now that Lotus has invited me to drive the car, I found myself a little wary of my innate prejudices about EVs.
Contrary to my generational counterparts, I'm not a huge advocate of electrification as a replacement for all vehicles on the road. To my mind, EVs have their place: milk floats, city driving, final mile deliveries and the like, but for distance and speed I want old-fashioned fossil fuel to push me forwards, faster and louder.
Lotus Evija
So when I picture an EV, it’s usually a generic powertrain wrapped in a generic shell with a derivative badge that has more vowels than you can shake a stick at. To me, contemporary electric cars meld into a forgettable mismatch of mundane or tech-focused driving that loses the connection you normally get from internal combustion. That was not my experience with the Lotus Evija.
Lotus Evija
The Evija is the first electric car that I've driven and not thought, ‘This is all well and good but it would be better with an engine.’ Not in terms of its sound, performance, cabin or looks. There is no need for Hans Zimmer-esque sci-fi noises, Lotus just lets the powertrain speak for itself. Each wheel gets its own 375kW motor; in unison they sound like F-15s dogfighting at Mach 2. Put wings on the Evija and I’m fairly sure it could fly. Though, despite it promising to take off, at no point did the nose ever feel like it was lifting. If anything, the faster you go, the harder it presses its belly to the ground.
Lotus Evija
Thrashing around the same Hethel roads that Colin Chapman once used to test the likes of the Europa and Esprit, my co-pilot for the day, John Farn-Ramsay, Lotus’ principal engineer of vehicle dynamics, articulated a phenomenon that I’ve briefly encountered before but never had the experiential vocabulary to describe. In Tour mode, the Evija exhibits a sensation that engineering folk call ‘skyhook’. The car feels like it’s connected to the sky and gliding above the road – think a suspended monorail. It's the smoothest ride imaginable, regardless of how scarred or pitted the driving surface.
Lotus Evija
Put it in Sport mode and it drops down into ‘groundhook’. Now the Evija feels tethered to the road, responding to every minute detail on the surface. It’s a harsher ride but utterly honest about every pothole, camber and undulation. Rarely are two driving modes in the same car so expressive.
Lotus Evija
The Evija was born in 2019 but after Covid-related delays, production didn’t start till 2023. Incidentally, this means the car was homologated before recent ‘safety’ changes that make things like speed limit warnings mandatory. Aside from the crazy motor noise, the cabin is blissfully free from the annoying bings and bongs that punctuate modern machinery.
Lotus Evija
Lotus Evija
One of its most high-tech quirks is digital wing and rearview mirrors. Physical wing mirrors are still optional but actually the camera picture is crisp and clear. They also give you a unique perspective of approaching cars (if you ever go slow enough for someone to overtake, that is). Everything appears bumper first, giving you a better look under other cars than most mechanics get.
Inside the Lotus Evija
The rest of the interior is refreshingly open. The flying centre console houses a hexagonal array of haptic buttons and a rotary dial at the bottom controls phone connectivity and the like in the dash display. Lotus leaned into the racing vibe with the yoke, matching most of the controls you’d find in a Le Mans car. In fact, Lotus is so keen on owners experiencing its capabilities on track that it quotes its range in laps of the Nürburgring – 15 if you were wondering.
On track is really where the Evija really breaks the laws of physics. Its electronic wizardry is so sophisticated that it won't let you drift (no matter how hard you try!). Every tight corner you pull, it tucks in harder than feels possible. Get it on a straight stretch and 2,011bhp melts your face. Lotus doesn't bother with a 0-60mph time, 0-186mph (in 9.2 seconds) is where it designed the Evija to thrive.
With your foot to the floor its power never wanes. Most cars reach an upper limit where the power naturally drops off as they're targeted at lower-speed power delivery but the Evija is consistent through and through.
Every time I lifted my foot, I expected the car to start slowing itself down like a regular EV. Yet rather than add the extra weight and complexity of regenerative braking, Lotus just left it out. In some ways it feels old-fashioned for an EV to not have regen, but anyone lucky enough to afford in excess of £2.5m is probably not concerned with miles per kWh.
Lotus Evija
To keep the weight distribution true to the mid-engined layout that is so prevalent in super and hypercars, the 91kWh battery is tucked in behind the seats, leaving only the top part of the rear suspension visible through the window.
Although the Evija’s 1,894kg dry weight strays from the company's long history of lighter and simpler design, it behaves like a sub-1,200kg car with all the robustness of something that's far bigger. The abrupt force of its carbon ceramic brakes are enough to rip out your fillings – it needs a five-point racing harness along with a helmet.
Lotus Evija
So, what have I learned? I have no doubt the Lotus Evija could convince any sceptic about the driving joy that can be found behind the wheel of a technology I might have once dismissed.