With the Emira, Lotus is waving goodbye to internal combustion engines as the sports car is effectively the last ICE model from Norfolk. The Geely-owned marque has pledged to go purely electric by 2028, and to get there, it has already launched the Eletre SUV and Emeya sedan. A smaller crossover is also planned, along with a zero-emission sports car. To support its growing EV portfolio, the British brand is introducing multiple charging solutions.
In a bid to cure charging anxiety, Lotus has developed a liquid-cooled DC charger that can juice up a battery at 450 kW. In the case of the Eletre R, you’ll get 88.5 miles (142 kilometers) of range back after only about five minutes with the charging cable plugged in. For the sake of comparison, Tesla’s Supercharger V3 replenishes the battery for 75 miles (120 kilometers) of range in the same amount of time while a Hyundai Ioniq 5 gives you 62 miles (100 kilometers).
The liquid-cooled DC charger enables the Eletre R to go from 10 to 80 percent in 20 minutes when charging at 450 kW. At 350 kW, it’ll extend the range by 74 miles (120 kilometers) in five minutes. This beefy charger is complemented by a power cabinet, also liquid-cooled, ideal for rest areas along highways. Lotus has also engineered a charging unit that can support as many as four EVs at the same time.
These ultra-powerful charging solutions are already up and running in China and will be implemented in Europe and the Middle East in the second quarter of 2024. Additional countries outside of these regions will be added in due course.
Lotus is part of the Geely empire, which also puts Polestar underneath the same corporate umbrella. The reason we’re bringing this up is because an even faster charging solution is being worked on by Polestar and StoreDot. The two are collaborating on a technology that adds 100 miles (161 kilometers) of range in five minutes. Dubbed extreme fast charging (XFC), the tech is currently being tested and the engineers are claiming it won’t cause battery degradation.
