Lotus Will Launch Its First Plug-In Hybrid In January

It’s fair to say that things haven’t been so smooth over at Lotus lately. While the Emira is one of the best (and indeed only) sports cars left on the market, and has proven reasonably popular with an enthusiast crowd, the cars that the brand banked on bolstering its numbers – the Eletre and Emeya – just aren’t selling enough.

It’s hoped that the introduction of some plug-in hybrids will spur on demand, and we’ll see the first of these in January, according to CEO Feng Qingfeng in the company’s recent Q4 earnings call.

Full details on the car haven’t been confirmed, but Qingfeng makes mention of an ‘E-segment hybrid SUV’, suggesting that it’ll be a PHEV version of the existing Eletre. We know hybrid versions of both this and the Emeya saloon have been in the works for some time, along with a third electrified model – a smaller SUV designed to take on the Porsche Macan, currently known only by the codename Type 134.

Powertrain details are scarce too, but Qingfeng outlined a few key stats. At its peak, the system will deliver 939bhp – more than the most powerful Eletre EV – and provide over 621 miles of quoted driving range. It’ll also feature a 900V electrical architecture, 48V active anti-roll stabilisation, and Lotus’ ‘Dual Hyper Charging’ tech, which will employ the combustion engine as a generator to rapidly top up the battery on the move.

We’ll first see the car at a preview event in January in China, where all of Lotus’ non-sports cars are now produced, with the car set to launch there in the first quarter of the year. It’ll then arrive in Europe at an unspecified later date.

With demand for EVs still unpredictable – and likely to take a further hit in the UK with the announcement of the government’s new 3p-per-mile tax on them – launching PHEV versions of its electric cars seems like a no-brainer. Whether it’ll be enough to turn around the brand’s sales woes, we’ll have to wait and see.