Lotus Emeya review

Approach an Emeya with the (annoyingly impractical) key lozenge and it presents its door handles. No unlocking required. Open the pillarless door, climb inside, squeeze the brake and it’s ready to go. No starting required. Nothing unusual about that for a modern EV, save for the fact that Lotus’s system works. Sometimes this ‘button-free entry and go’ process is a long way from seamless, but not here. It sets the tone for a car which has been developed like an Apple product.

Lotus hasn’t gone heavy on gimmicky noises. Drag the wee sprung selector back for Drive and it sets off in silence, free of Hollywood composer-curated noise effects. It’s serene.

One thing to note right away: you sit quite high. Higher than you’d expect, given this is meant to be the low-slung sports saloon of the range and Lotus already has a high-riding crossover. But because the battery hasn’t been scalloped to allow a lowly seating position like in some rivals, you address the wheel from a more upright, command position than you might’ve expected. If you’re coming from a Taycan or e-tron GT, it’ll feel like you’re ‘on’ the car, not ‘in’ it.

Is it fast?

Yes, and here’s the first of several reasons why you’re better off with the base car or the S than an Emeya R: the 603bhp versions are more than quick enough. Both can get from 50-75mph in two seconds flat, so you’re hardly stressing about merging onto a motorway.

What’s more, the acceleration of the S we were testing was less uncomfortable in its sheer forcefulness than the only ‘R’ Lotus variant we’ve tested so far, which was the even heavier Eletre. We’re sick of electric cars capable of making passengers retch with fright when you jump on the throttle, and the standard Emeya is more than quick enough for anyone who has a mental age beyond eleven.

Is it fun to drive?

Not especially. It’s a road-jet: composed, quiet, not especially fond of rapid direction changes and focused on delivering speed and mile-munching in an undramatic way. The steering is fast, accurate and well-weighted but unremarkable. The car corners level, but you sense it’s a 2.5-tonne monster and the forces involved quickly dispel any notion of enjoying taking the twisty way home.

The weakest aspect of the dynamics is undoubtedly the over-served brake pedal which seems to have come from an early Lexus hybrid. The brakes themselves have the requisite power to rein in a Bentley-outweighing Lotus, but there’s no feel or finesse to the re-gen. Which is another reason you’ll soon stop bothering with the driving modes.

What modes are there?

Tour, Range, Sport and Track. Don’t bother with the latter unless you just really like red ambient lighting. This isn’t a car that persuades you to water down the ESP. It’s happiest in Tour mode – toggle through the list by clicking the split paddles behind the steering wheel. The one on the left handily selects between four stages of re-gen braking: we settled on the strongest re-gen, as it meant we had to press the grabby brake pedal less often.

Good cruiser?

Absolutely. Although we’ve only driven the Emeya on extremely smooth German roads at the time of writing, the car rode superbly, with far more sophisticated, expensive damping than any Tesla ever made. It’s quiet, as you’d expect, with wind noise ironically whipping most noticeably around the ‘lo-drag’ side cameras, which remain far less user-friendly than proper door mirrors. We’d much prefer them to be a cost-extra option.

How far would it go on a charge in the real-world?

We need to spend longer than half a day with the car to be definitive, but our test car claimed 280 miles on a charge during a very hot day with the air-conditioning doing overtime, even after we set the multi-tinted glass roof to the darkest setting possible to try to inhibit some of the natural greenhouse effect panoramic glass roofs cause, sapping energy along the way.

Our experience of the Eletre is that the current electric Lotuses are far from the most efficient EVs, with the Eletre R failing to surpass 2 miles per kWh. The Emeya S should improve on this, but we’ll report back when we’ve had a more representative test.