19-05-2025
King Charles orders £160k electric car from Norfolk brand
King Charles is adding a new electric car to his collection of motors - and it is being made by a Norfolk company.
The King has ordered a Lotus Eletre in a royal claret colour to use as his new run-around car on one of his country estates.
The 164mph vehicle will be made by Lotus which has been based at Hethel near Wymondham since 1966.
Prices start at around £90,000 for the car, with the King's bespoke order costing around £160,000.
King Charles III was recently pictured at the Royal Windsor Horse Show (Image: Aaron Chown/PA Wire) A royal insider told The Sun: "The Palace has hinted that if Bentley can't make limousines for official use run on electric, then they would look at other manufacturers.
"The fact that Lotus can produce an electric SUV in royal claret really puts them in the driving seat.
"The Royal Family had a Lotus Eletre last year on loan and it clearly ticked some boxes."
The Lotus Eletre (pictured in Cinnabar Red colour) is the King's latest choice of car (Image: Lotus) The two existing state Bentleys will undergo a refurbishment so that they can run on biofuel, but this is believed to be an interim measure while discussions take place about the state vehicles being fully electric.
In 1994, Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke of Edinburgh arrived in the second State Review Range Rover on the beach at Arromanches, Normandy, for the 50th anniversary memorial service of the Second World War D-Day Landings (Image: PA Wire) The late Queen was a keen motorist and was often spotted driving visiting dignitaries around the Balmoral Estate in her Land Rover.
The Royal Family has access to several Rolls-Royce Phantoms and Bentley State Limousines, the latter of which became more popular in the early 21st century.
The Spirit of Ecstacy, gifted to the Queen in 2002, is armoured and blast-resistant and rides on Kevlar-reinforced tyres. This car is reportedly valued at £10 million.
Prince Philip, also a lover of cars, crashed his Land Rover Freelander in January 2019 just miles away from the Sandringham Estate.
Prince Philip crashed his Land Rover Freelander near the Sandringham Estate in 2019 (Image: Chris Bishop) At the time, Buckingham Palace said: "The Duke of Edinburgh was involved in a road traffic accident with another vehicle this afternoon.
"The Duke was not injured. The accident took place close to the Sandringham Estate. Local police attended the scene."
The 97-year-old Duke's Freelander overturned and came to rest on the driver's side.
Eyewitnesses said the Duke was pulled from the car by passersby and although shocked and shaken, he was uninjured.
Queen Camilla was spotted getting into a Land Rover Discovery at the Sandringham Estate earlier this year (Image: Paul Marriott/PA)
Lotus cars have been used in many films during the last few decades.
James Bond famously drove his S1 Esprit off the pier in Sardinia to escape the villain Anya Amasova and then used his built-in missiles to destroy her helicopter in The Spy Who Loved Me, released in 1977.
The Esprit also made it back into Bond's hands in For Your Eyes Only, released in 1981.
The Lotus Esprit in the James Bond films could travel underwater (Image: Steve Jurvetson/Wiki Commons) For the film Pretty Woman, Richard Gere's character drove a 1989 Lotus Esprit SE. The producers initially sought a Ferrari, but both Ferrari and Porsche declined to provide vehicles, and Lotus then stepped in with three cars for the movie.
More recently, a Lotus Evora was used in the 2013 film adaptation of Stephanie Meyer's novel The Host, where the cars were wrapped in a chrome finish and fitted with special lighting effects.
In the action film Red 2, which stars Bruce Willis and John Malkovich, a blue Lotus Exige S sports car was used.
