2025 Lotus Emeya Up Close: New Lotus, New Mission
You might know Lotus from its petite, two-seat sports cars over the years, including the Elise, Evora, and more recently the Emira and Evija supercar. Or maybe you know Lotus from a British spy’s very special two-seat sports car that turned into a submarine back in the 1970s. But Lotus is on the verge of being replaced by something completely different, as it’s about to be turned into an all-electric performance brand that also sells SUVs and sedans. To begin heading in that direction, the company is going to start with products like this one: the 2025 Lotus Emeya sedan, which I was able to get a recent up-close look at in person.
Styled Like Nothing Else
My first impression upon encountering the bright yellow Emeya (“em-aay-uh”) sitting in a suburban Detroit warehouse was, “Wow, that does not look like anything I’ve seen from Lotus before.” And it’s true, it doesn’t — but then, Lotus doesn’t really have a specific styling aesthetic. The small, mid-engine sports cars are attractive, but their style hasn’t changed much over the years. This, however, looks nothing like any of the Lotus sports cars of the past; it’s fully modern and full of scoops, strakes, angry-mouth grilles and shark-gill headlights.
But somehow, it all works; the Emeya is obviously highly aerodynamic, employing a lot of moving wings, doors, grille panels and other aids to maximize aero efficiency. Physically, the new EV has to be one of the biggest vehicles Lotus has ever built, but the fact that it shares technology and bits under the skin with other models in parent automaker Geely’s universe helps to explain its size. The Emeya is roughly comparable to a Porsche Taycan or Audi E-Tron GT — which will be its main competitors in size, capability, technology and price — but I also suspect that it will stack up interestingly against the upcoming Polestar 5 sedan (and I wouldn’t at all be surprised if they’re the same car underneath, either). The Emeya is a hatchback, not a pure sedan, so you’ll also have decent cargo capacity and access.
Impressive Inside
Pop the automatic opening door and slide into the driver’s seat, and you’re greeted by more never-before-seen styling for a Lotus. It’s absolutely futuristic in the Emeya, with impressive build quality on the prototype version I saw.
Most information is presented on a big central screen on the console, as is de rigueur for luxury EVs these days, but there are two additional slim displays to see: one in front of the driver, one in front of the front-seat passenger and another screen that’s a head-up display projected on the windshield. The smaller slim screens are great, presenting relevant and important information to the driver, such as the speedometer and charge, plus some additional information for the passenger. The HUD is large and multicolored, presenting all the same information but in an even more convenient location above the dashboard.
That center display is pretty slick, too, with smooth, wild graphics reminiscent of the wild stuff you see in a GMC Hummer EV, which had its user interface done with Unreal Engine. But the level of control offered by the various systems is pretty extraordinary, and the animated transitions between screens look amazing. Unfortunately, all of the climate controls are also in this touchscreen, including things like repositioning the air vents, an unnecessary level of movement and complication in any vehicle that can be potentially distracting while driving.
There are some interesting quirks in the Emeya, however. The steering wheel is not round; it’s instead more of an octagon, like what’s found in the latest Chevrolet Corvette, but it’s covered in some fine-feeling faux suede. All the materials in the Emeya feel upscale and expensive, frankly, with design and execution that again makes a Mercedes-EQ EQS feel cheap and a Tesla Model S feel downright chintzy. The front seats are comfortable and actually spacious, and there’s plenty of headroom, which is surprising in a sedan this swoopy. It’s less comfortable in the backseats, though, where leg and headroom are both a bit tight for big people, though it’d be acceptable for short distances.
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The New Mission for Lotus
We’ll have to reserve any driving impressions for when we hopefully get behind the wheel of an Emeya in 2024, when the EV is slated to start hitting U.S. showrooms. We have some details about its powertrain and what it should be able to do in the meantime: Lotus reports the Emeya will have a 102-kilowatt-hour battery pack capable of DC fast charging at up to 350 kilowatts, but not what its estimated range is going to be. The top-spec variant will have two electric motors making 905 horsepower in total, and it should be good for a 0-62 mph time of less than 2.8 seconds, according to the company.
No pricing is yet announced, but given its Porsche Taycan competition, it’ll likely be north of $100,000 to start. We also don’t know quite how many versions of the Emeya will be made, as in if there will be other models with lower outputs for less money.
What we do know is that before the Emeya gets here, it will have a big brother in showrooms to keep it company: the Eletre SUV, which shares a lot of components, interior bits and hardware with the Emeya sedan. That one we have driven — look for a report coming soon.
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