And they are NOT all sold out.
Four years ago, almost to the day (July 16, 2019), the Lotus Evija was revealed. And yet not a single car has been delivered. The Evija has suffered setback after setback since its debut, but at the 2023 Goodwood Festival of Speed (FOS), representatives told CarBuzz that the wait is finally over and that the first customer deliveries will start at Monterey Car Week next month. Speaking to media at FOS, Gavan Kershaw, director of Attributes and Product Integrity for Lotus, said, “At Monterey, Pebble Beach, we'll be handing over our first customer cars.”
What's more, we've already seen the first customer-spec cars. At FOS, Lotus had a special Evija Emerson Fittipaldi Edition on display. It wears a black and gold livery that pays homage to the F1 driver and his Lotus 72 that won the Driver's and Constructor's championship titles, respectively, in 1972. The car on display was confirmed to be a customer car, the first of eight in this specification. But looking at the Fittipaldi Edition on display, something was amiss; the badge says “Lotus Nyo” instead of Lotus.
This tells us the owner of this car hails from China, and that's where its final destination will be. The Lotus name is already taken in China, so all Lotus models sold in the Asian country wear a 'Lotus Nyo' badge, which translates as “New Lotus.” The Chinese car market is the largest in the world, but for a number of years, many legacy automakers didn't try to enter the market. That, of course, has changed with Lotus being purchased by Chinese automaker Geely, but since the ownership rights of the name were never registered by the sports car maker there, it has had to adapt its identity accordingly.
Limited to just 130 units, earlier reports said that every one of the 130 hypercars was spoken for, but Lotus representatives confirmed to CarBuzz that this is no longer the case. That means you can still order one if you have approximately $2.6 million (the price is £1.995 million, and Lotus says for cars like this, all transactions are handled in pounds sterling), burning a hole in your pocket.
When the Evija debuted in 2019, it was not only Lotus' first hypercar but also the brand's first all-electric vehicle. 1,972 horsepower and 1,253 lb-ft of torque from two electric motors make it a true revelation, and the numbers only get better once you realize it's an EV that only weighs 3,702 lbs.
All that power has to come from somewhere, which in this case is a 70-kWh lithium-ion battery pack mounted aft of the cockpit. When quizzed about why the battery was positioned there, Lotus didn't give the typical spiel about replicating the weight balance of a mid-engined supercar, although that was a factor (and one Lotus was first to do). Instead, its placement decision was two-fold, starting with the fact that they could lower the driver's position by as much as eight inches, but beyond that, we were told it was done to make the Evija upgradeable as battery technology improves.
The battery takes up the same amount of space as a mid-mounted V8 and can be swapped out for a new battery module packaged into the same chest configuration.
So while the Evija's headline numbers are now a little less spectacular in light of the Rimac Nevera and Pininfarina Battista's arrival, there's room to grow for the Lotus hypercar.
With any luck, Lotus will find a way to give the Evija a lightweight battery, otherwise the brand that once simplified and added lightness will now be known for building chunky overweight EVs, while Caterham continues the lightweight fight with the Project V electric sports car, which weighs less than a Toyota GR86.
Keyword: Lotus Evija Hypercar Finally Ready To Be Delivered To Owners