LOTUS EVIJA
red LEDs at their rear edges to evoke a fi ghter
plane’s afterburners. Carr concedes they were
only possible “because we have a bespoke
powertrain and it is an expensive car. We can
aff ord to assemble it in a way you wouldn’t want
to do if you were making 30,000 a year.”
E numbers
Regarding that powertrain, it is pure-electric
with 4WD and good for 2000hp and 1700Nm
of torque (eight times more powerful than
a Formula E race car). Its 0-62mph (100km/h)
target is sub-three seconds with 0-186mph
(300km/h) dispatched in under
nine. That’s crazy-quick but not as
fast in the early sprint as the
forthcoming Automobili
Pininfarina Battista with Rimac
know-how (the Italian fi rm is
promising a sub-two second
0-62mph). Windle counters that
“we’re quicker above 62mph” and
talks up the Evija’s “overall
capability for both road and track
as more important. 80% of the
car’s downforce is created by the
design of its underside but the
diff user and Venturi tunnels both
reduce drag too.” Thousands of
hours of virtual testing and digital
analysis by Lotus and
Williams Advanced
Engineering have
already been
HISTORY OF
LOTUS TYPE
Type 14
The world’s first composite
monocoque production road
car (Elite, 1957)
Type 25
The world’s first fully-stressed
monocoque F1 car, and the
first Lotus to win F1 world
championship (1963)
Type 72
The most successful F1 car of
all time and the blueprint for
F1 car design for many years
(Championship winner in 1970,
1972 and 1973)
Type 78
The world’s first ‘ground
effect’ F1 car (1977)
Type 88
The world’s first carbon fiber
F1 car (1981)
Type 92
The world’s first active
suspension F1 car (1983)
Type 111
The world’s first aluminum
and bonded extrusion
construction production car
(Lotus Elise, 1995)
Type 130
The Lotus Evija, the first
fully electric British hypercar
(2019)
Windle rejoined Lotus in February 2017 and
became part of the executive team in July 2018.
He’s part of an infl ux of experienced industry
fi gures newly enticed to the brand by its
potential, but another key member of the team
– head of design, Russell Carr – has been at the
marque since 1990. He’s worked through some
rocky times and also interesting ones,
including for Lotus’s consultancy arm, working
on the 2011 Rolls-Royce Phantom 102EX
electric concept. If all goes well now, Carr
thinks the Evija could be his proudest moment.
The 20-month program that became Evija
started with the internal project name ‘Omega’
and Carr wanting a clean design aesthetic
while utilizing Le Mans racing car know-how.
“We wanted it to look really modern but
beautiful as well, with set fl uid surfaces,” Carr
begins. “What is fresh on this car is the airfl ow
management. We need downforce as this is an
extremely high-performance car. The easy way
to do that is to make a slab-sided car like those
racing cars from the 1980s, but we spotted the
trend you see in a lot of LMP cars, where the
airfl ow is managed not only over the car’s
surfaces but also through the car too. That
gave a really interesting sculptural
opportunity. Lo and behold the very fi rst runs
we did through Computational Flow Dynamics
(CFD) with a little bit of guidance from our
own analysis worked out well. Since then we’ve
gone to the ‘nth degree’ in terms in analyzing
every surface to optimize that.”
Indeed, the stand-out elements of the Evija
are the twin Venturi tunnels providing airfl ow
through the hypercar, and which are lit with
www.electrichybridvehicletechnology.com // July 2019 // 65
1. The all-electric
powertrain and
2,000kW battery has
been developed with
Williams Advanced
Engineering, and
mounted centrally
behind the cockpit
2. Interior design is
inspired by prototype
race cars from the
1950s and 1960s
3. The Evija features
an F1-style steering
wheel and the brand’s
fi rst ever digital IP
3
/www.electrichybridvehicletechnology.com