Latest news with #LotusEletre
NDTV
5 days ago
- Automotive
- NDTV
King Charles Goes Green With Lotus Eletre Electric SUV: Report
King Charles III is going to add a brand new electric vehicle to his collection of cars in the form of the Lotus Eletre. Based on reports of multiple media outlets, the British monarch is settling for the performance EV, despite old Land Rovers being his preferred choice of wheels. For many, this might not come as a surprise, considering His Majesty's vocal support for environmental causes. Furthermore, this is not the first electric vehicle in the royal garage. His Majesty owned a Jaguar I-Pace, which was sold in an auction in 2024 with 35,000 miles (56327 km) on the odometer. Talking about alternative fuel vehicles, his garage also had an Aston Martin DB6 Volante, which uses bioethanol as a fuel. The latest in the list will be Eletre. However, it is not confirmed if it is the Eletre, Eletre S, or Eletre R. The Eletre and Eletre S are equipped with a 603 hp dual-motor system, offering a range of 600km. In contrast, the Eletre R boasts a 905 hp dual-motor configuration with a 2-speed transmission, achieving a maximum range of 490 km. The torque figures stand at 710 Nm for the former and 985 Nm for the latter, with acceleration from 0 to 100 kmph in 4.5 seconds for the Eletre and Eletre S, and in just 2.95 seconds for the high-performance R model. All variants come with all-wheel drive and active air suspension as standard features. Additionally, there's a selection of five driving modes along with a torque vectoring system. The Eletre R also includes a handling pack, carbon fibre components, gloss black wheels, and high-performance tires as standard. Each of the three versions is powered by a 112kWh battery that can be charged from 10% to 80% in just 20 minutes when using a rapid charger. A 22kWh AC charger is also included as standard equipment. The SUV was launched in the Indian market in 2023 with a starting price of Rs 2.55 crore (ex-showroom).
The Herald Scotland
24-05-2025
- The Herald Scotland
I revisited my childhood on one of UK's new long-distance road trips
Hang on, isn't this tourism Mecca already oversubscribed, I hear you ask? Not any more it isn't. Slumping post-Covid figures have led a small team of businesses to set up SW660 in the wake of hotel and holiday centre closures. Even Cornwall's flagship tourist attraction, the Eden Centre, has had to lay off 80 members of staff due to a slump in visitors. A perfect storm of unreliable weather and inflated prices have led to holidaymakers voting with two fingers to England's beautiful peninsula. During the 'staycation' period much of the area was crammed to the gunwales. Many exploited their monopoly with price hikes and now significant numbers, it would seem, have neither forgotten nor forgiven. The worst hit area has been the already impoverished county of Cornwall so I decide to check out the route, focusing largely on the 200-mile coastal drive around Poldark country. Mark and his mother Jean (Image: Mark Porter) I pack my bag and my mother - who is Cornish by birth - plus my brother Tom into a smart electric Lotus Eletre SUV and hit the road. Tom and I spent our childhoods beachcombing in North Cornwall and have an affinity with its odd charm. The futuristic car looks like a Stealth bomber were it not for the bright yellow Lotus livery. 'It should come with crash hats and a G-suit,' says mum who was more shaken than stirred by its whiplash acceleration. We start from the Devonian port of Plymouth, an under-rated city where we ignore the post-war concrete bits and instead stroll around the elegant Georgian streets of the Hoe and the medieval splendour of the Barbican, which the German WWII bombs thankfully missed. The Barbican is where 102 austere pilgrims boarded the Mayflower and set sail in 1620 for the New World, but in a decidedly unpuritanical spirit we decide to visit the 14th century Blackfriars meeting hall, now the home of Plymouth Gin, for a guided tour. Mark and his brother Tom at Plymouth Gin Distillery (Image: Mark Porter) 'No ship left port without a big stock of gin, apart from the Mayflower,' says our spirited guide. Could there be a connection here with the number of wrecks that adorn the seabed of Plymouth Sound? We dine out in a splendid locals' restaurant in a cobbled street and the following morning cross the River Tamar, which acts as the county boundary, on the Torpoint ferry. Suddenly the roads become twisting lanes with spectacular coastal views. We pass the beaches of Cawsand and Kingsand, hidden gems where my mother played as a child. 'Uncle John launched the tin bathtub from here,' she says. 'It sank.' Unperturbed, John went on to spend 40 years in the navy. It is late afternoon and it's raining heavily when we reach St Austell (pronounced 'Snozzle' by the locals) so a guided tour of the St Austell Brewery seems a good idea. It used to be a byword for filthy beer, but in recent years has produced some of the finest ales in the land, and has rescued many a local pub. Nearby is Charlestown, which will be familiar to practically everyone as its spectacular ancient harbour has featured in Dr Who, Poldark, and the film The Eagle Has Landed, to name but a few. We check into the Pier House, a small pub/hotel adjoining the harbour. The angry ocean crashes over the outer sea walls and we dine on local gamebird. A seadog who has been lashed to the bar all evening puts on his sou'wester and careens into the night. I watch him cross a perilous gangplank onto a sailing boat moored outside, in the calm of the inner harbour. Central Casting could never find anyone that authentic. "He's become a local," says the barmaid. 'I think he's from Tunbridge Wells.' The weather has cleared and we head west past Dodman Point and Mevagissey. We stop for an ice cream at the Idle Rocks hotel in St Mawes, before taking the King Harry chain ferry across Carrick Roads towards Falmouth. At the historic Greenbank hotel, on the edge of the ancient deep water harbour with terrific views up the junglelike mouth of the Fal, we have lunch looking out on dinghies, sailboats and the Royal Navy's auxiliary fleet. Falmouth's National Maritime Museum is a cornucopia of history, boatbuilding, seafaring and a great place for kids and adults alike. But so too is The Oddfellows Arms, where we head afterwards. The next morning we pass Penzance, skirt Land's End and are on the north coast where the Channel morphs into the raw Atlantic. Craggy tors dominate the skyline with tufts of gorse and lichen seeping from ancient cracks in the jagged granite. The scenery opens up - rolling greensward as far as the eye can see, bordered by a white-flecked, seething ocean which beats against the beetling cliffs. We visit the squat Norman church at Zennor where yew trees keep vigil over the graves of wreckers and miners. Next door at the 700-year-old Tinners Arms hikers hunker down in front of an open fire. Past St Ives we check into our new billet at Three Mile Beach. We are in a three-bedroom bungalow with sauna, hot tub and log-burner a short stroll from the famous surfing beach of Gwithian Towans. The following day we move on past Fistral Beach and head to The Pig at Harlyn Bay, a 15th century Cornish manor house with log fires crackling in each public room and a kitchen garden supplying much of the needs of the locally sourced and excellent restaurant. Only a thick slate wall separates The Pig from the sands of Harlyn Bay. The Pig at Harlyn Bay (Image: Mark Porter) The final drive takes us to Port Isaac, home of TV's grumpy Doc Martin, a pretty fishing village near Rock. We cross Bodmin Moor, past Brown Willy, Cornwall's highest point which looms nearly 1,500 feet above the granitic moorland. 'I do like the Flying Banana,' confesses mum from the leather-clad comfort of the passenger seat. It's her nickname for the Lotus. 'I could get used to it.' Our final night is at Boringdon Hall Hotel just outside Plymouth. It boasts a wonderful spa. Tom and I lounge in the outdoor bit of the heated pool after checking out the saunas and hammams. We sign off the family odyssey with dinner at its Michelin-starred Aclèaf restaurant. The plates are such works of art that it seems a shame to despoil them. Almost. Footnote: the SW660 is best tackled out of peak holiday time and you might want to park up and enjoy some of the villages on foot. Don't forget your credit cards. Fact Box E-Vehicle Lotus Eletre. Zap-Map. Vital resource to avoid range anxiety Plymouth Boringdon Hall Hotel Hotel Moxy Charlestown Pier House Hotel Falmouth Greenbank Hotel Gwithian Towans Three Mile Beach Harlyn Bay The Pig at Harlyn Bay
Top Gear
21-05-2025
- Automotive
- Top Gear
His Majesty King Charles III has bought a Lotus Eletre
His Majesty – a fervent environmentalist for over 55 years – is reported to have picked a red one Turn on Javascript to see all the available pictures. His Majesty King Charles III is preparing to startle some pheasants with delivery of yet another EV later this year. This time out, it's an electron-rich Lotus Eletre. The British monarch has reportedly settled on Lotus's extremely modern and rather potent performance EV, despite being better known for riding around in old Land Rovers.
Yahoo
21-05-2025
- Automotive
- Yahoo
King Charles III Snubs Tesla and Buys an EV From Wuhan, China
It emerged Tuesday that King Charles has snubbed the toxic Tesla brand for Lotus, ordering a fully electric, $210,000 Lotus Eletre SUV, according to U.K. tabloid the Sun. Despite Lotus having its roots in the U.K., their cars are now manufactured in Wuhan, the Chinese industrial hub synonymous with the outbreak of COVID-19. The royals have long sought to buy British cars, favoring Rolls Royces, Land Rovers and Bentleys, but many of these brands have fallen into the hands of foreign owners in recent years, with production often moved overseas. Charles is famously the owner of a pale blue Aston Martin DB6, a 21st birthday present from his mother, the late Queen Elizabeth, which has been converted to run off biofuels. Another iconic British brand, Aston Martin has struggled under a succession of owners in recent decades, and is now owned 18% by the Saudi public investment fund. Lotus was established as a boutique British sports car brand in 1948 but was 51% acquired by Chinese owners Zhejiang Geely in 2017. They moved production from the U.K. to Wuhan in 2022. The new Lotus will be specially painted in the traditional scarlet colors of royal livery, known as 'royal claret,' and will be used at one of Charles' country homes, the report said. It is a fully electric car and has a range of 280 miles. The Sun said it goes from 0-60mph in 2.9 seconds and has a top speed of 162 mph. A source told the Sun: 'The king has always liked eco-friendly vehicles, but seems conscious that royal claret is the right look, even when off duty. It will look far more professional for the king's personal car to match the state vehicles. The palace has hinted that if Bentley can't make limousines for official use run on electric, they would look at other manufacturers.' The U.K. is due to ban pure petrol and diesel cars by 2030. Two state Bentleys on ceremonial occasions are exempt from the legislation but are due to be converted to run on biofuel. Tesla, meanwhile, has been at the epicenter of a months-long slump following Elon Musk's controversial work with the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) and Trump administration. The Tesla CEO has spent the past four months making drastic cuts to federal agencies across the country—and shifting his attention from the automotive company's headquarters in Austin to the White House. Musk's shift in priorities arguably impacted the company's sales, which recorded a roughly 9 percent drop in the first three months of the year in the United States, according to The New York Times. Though factors like competition impacted the plunge, Musk's close ties with the Trump administration were also heavily cited as reasons for the fall. Some longtime Tesla investors even publicly pleaded for the billionaire to divest from his work at DOGE.
Spectator
20-05-2025
- Automotive
- Spectator
Is it wise for King Charles to drive a Chinese-made EV?
There is no such thing as a 'royal car'. Traditionally, the monarchy has been associated with various British manufacturers, such as Bentley, Rolls-Royce and (until their recent, breathtakingly misjudged advertising campaign, at least) Jaguar. But there is no equivalent of the Popemobile, brought out on every public occasion so that the King might be received by his adoring people. Instead, when one glimpses Charles, or the other major royals, in public, it is usually in the back of an extremely expensive and suitably petrol-guzzling vehicle, which sits at odds with the monarch's avowed commitment to the environment. In private, at least, the King has now found a compromise. It has been suggested that he has ordered a Lotus Eletre, an all-electric vehicle that its manufacturer modestly describes as 'an unprecedented merger of exhilarating performance, luxury and technology. A one-of-a-kind Hyper-SUV that defines a new class of cars – and redefines your standards'.
