Lotus has started construction on a new site in Wuhan, China, where it will begin building a family of brand new cars in 2022, starting with the Type 132 SUV.
The site, with a total investment of around 900 million pounds, will house Lotus Technology, a new division dedicated exclusively to the manufacture of electric cars.
The British firm has confirmed that two Chinese-made electric vehicle models will arrive in the next five years. After the Type 132 SUV will be the Type 133 four-door coupe in 2023 and a D-segment SUV named Type 134 in 2024. The long-awaited Type 135 sports car, developed in partnership with Alpine, will be built in Hethel in 2026.
A new partnership has also been revealed between Lotus and Chinese electric vehicle maker Nio. Li Bin, the latter’s founder and CEO, made an unspecified investment in Lotus Technology, which Lotus says opens the way for both sides to potentially “explore opportunities for mutually beneficial industrial cooperation.”
The Wuhan plant will open later this year, and Lotus Technology’s head office is expected to be completed in 2024. Covering an area of over one million square meters, it will eventually have a capacity of 150,000 cars per year, or 15 times more than existing Lotus. production line in Hethel, Norfolk.
Notably, Lotus says, it will be the first factory in the world with an “integrated intelligent test track”. The cars will travel to workshops without human intervention and will be able to travel at speeds of up to 140 mph on the 16-corner circuit.
The new Emira sports car and Evija’s all-electric flagship will be built at Hethel, with Lotus underlining its commitment to retain a UK company responsible for “coordinating global sales of the Lotus brand”. All of the new Lotus EVs shown today will be based on the company’s Premium Architecture, one of four EV platforms detailed earlier this year. Designed for “premium lifestyle” vehicles, it supports cars with wheelbases ranging from 2889mm to 3100mm (Lotus suggests this will encompass cars in the C + to E segments), and this could be extended to the future.
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Source: www.autocar.co.uk
This notice was published: 2021-08-31 07:53:48
