Lotus Hints At Name Of Luxurious New Sedan

Jul. 04, 2022 11:29 AM ET by Jarryd Neves Electric Vehicles / 4 Comments

The Porsche Taycan rival will be Norfolk's most luxurious model yet.

Lotus is going through somewhat of a renaissance. After weathering several financial storms, the boutique brand has emerged stronger than ever before - thanks to help from Geely, of course. Not only do we have the all-new Emira, but Lotus has promised a bevy of high-end luxury EVs, the first being the Eletre.

The striking SUV will soon be joined by the Type 133, a battery-powered sedan that has the Porsche Taycan firmly in its sights. Ahead of its reveal next year, Lotus managing director Matt Windle shared some details about the newcomer with Autocar. He told the British publication that the Type 133 will be a seriously luxurious sedan.

"It will be the Lotus ethos in that car. It's a bit more refined, further towards the luxury end of what we're trying to do with our performance luxury brand," said Windle. At this time, it's unknown whether the newcomer will share the Polestar 5's electric architecture or powerful 872-horsepower setup.

However, when asked if the Type 133 will be able to benefit from Polestar's development, the managing director hinted at a possibility. "Yes and no. The importance is keeping that individuality - and we are different companies." Lotus isn't closed off to the idea of working with sister brands, with Windle remarking that it makes sense for the small automaker.

"Geely is flexible and comfortable with us working with our sister companies, or third parties or other suppliers, OEMs, or anything. There's no direct purchasing or design strategy that they imply on us." This comes in handy for the Norfolk-based carmaker, with Windle noting it also works the other way around.

"Our sister companies and Geely come to Lotus for powertrain development, EDU development, ride and handling development." For now, we can confirm the production vehicle will adopt the "E" naming convention and will make use of the Eletre's 591-hp twin-motor setup. "[This is] where we're starting at - there's more to come."

In April, Lotus trademarked the names Etude and Envya. If we had to guess, we'd say the Type 133 will get the Envya moniker.

While we expect the Type 133 to borrow design elements from the SUV, Lotus' senior VP of design has implied the sedan will be distinctive. "There has to be some continuity and family identity...[but] families aren't made up entirely of triplets or quadruplets. Every member of a family can have their own character."

Even though the EVs will be built by the China-based Lotus Technology, rivals would do well to remember that anything wearing the ACB badge will be dynamically adept. The Eletre was designed to be a delight to drive and future models will follow suit. The company's Gavan Kershaw told Autocar the Type 133 will use "active roll control, CDC [continuous damping control], air-sprung independent active rear steer and active aero."

"Our type of car - that we want to drive as well as it looks - requires all that technology," he added.