Woah, the Lotus Emeya can fast-charge from 10-80 per cent in 14 minutes

The Lotus Emeya has earned the top spot in the fast charging stakes, according to a new report called the P3 Charging Index (P3CI). The driest-sounding document since we read the Autonomous Vehicles Act described how the Emeya delivered a peak power of 402kW and averaged 331kW at public charge points to go from 10-80 per cent in only 14 minutes. Woah.

The index pitted the Emeya against against ten other luxury electric vehicles, including the Mercedes EQS, Tesla Model Y and Nio ET5. The figures – put through a very specific methodology to ensure fair comparison – showed the Emeya took the same amount of time to complete a 10-80 per cent refill as it does for long-distance runner Beatrice Chebet to do a 5k Parkrun. Less than quarter of an hour? That’s blimmin' fast.

The Lotus’s nearest rival in power delivery was the Xpeng G9, which peaked at 320kW – the same as the official peak figure for the Porsche Taycan’s Performance Plus battery. It also trounced the Lucid Air Sapphire – the index’s best performer in 2023 – which maxes out at 300kW.

Lotus – positively glowing with an extra 100kW charging capacity – said the reason it’s able to make such gains over its competitors is to do with the cell-to-pack battery structure it's deployed in the Emeya. Its space-saving approach is said to increase the number of cells by about 20 per cent and simplifies things so there’s less chance things go wrong.

P3 – a consultancy firm specialising in software and tech – has compiled the index since 2019 in a bid to better understand the real-world conditions of long-distance EVs.