Lotus’ 200mph ‘Theory 1’ electric vehicle marks brand’s return to form

Lotus has unveiled a new electric vehicle concept called “Theory 1,” a lightweight (more or less) electric sports car concept inspired by the Lotus Esprit with nearly 1,000 hp and capable of speeds of up to 200 mph.

Here at ElectrekWe see and report on a lot of crazy electric vehicle concepts. These concepts are often accompanied by long treatises on how the design incorporates various “fundamentals,” useless branding for things that will never reach production, and a lot of buzzwords.

In some ways, the Theory 1 is no different. My eyes widened as I read through Lotus’ 2,000+ word press release before getting to the spec sheet.

And yet there is still something here, because this is Lotus – a company with an incredibly strong heritage in motorsport… and an equally strong heritage in electric cars.

Lotus is the company that supplied the lightweight ‘gliders’ on which the original Tesla Roadster, the car that launched the era of modern electric vehicles, was built.

And lately, Lotus has been getting into electric cars, with the $2 million Evija hypercar and the mass-market Eletre SUV and Emeya Hyper-GT.

But you’ll notice one thing that’s not like the others. While the company is famous for its focus on small cars, due to founder Colin Chapman’s theory of “simplifying then lightening,” both the Eletre and Emeya weigh in at over 2,500kg, more than double the weight of the original Tesla Roadster.

So Lotus’ new Theory 1, packed with probably unrealistic design features but clearly cheaper than the Evija, which carries a whopping $2 million price tag, could signal a return to form for the temperamental small-car maker.

That’s because its curb weight is listed at a much more reasonable 1,600 kg, or 3,527 pounds. That’s still heavy compared to the lightest vehicles on the road right now, but it’s in the low range of the most powerful sports cars available today (including lighter than the Evija), quite low compared to other electric vehicles, and significantly lower than some ridiculous petrol chonkers.

That’s also a lot more than the original Lotus Esprit that the Theory 1 is based on, which initially weighed about 2,000 pounds. But later versions of the same vehicle weighed up to about 3,000 pounds, not far off the Theory 1.

In this relatively small package, Lotus claims to have packed excellent performance specifications.

Its 986 hp powertrain is capable of going from 0 to 100 km/h (62 mph) in less than 2.5 seconds, with a top speed of 320 km/h (198 mph).

Power comes from a 70kWh battery with a range of 400km. That’s a little smaller than some of the larger batteries we’ve seen (the Eletre has a 112kWh battery, for example), but that’s the benefit of having a lightweight, low-slung vehicle.

But technical specifications don’t tell the whole story about how a car feels to drive. Lotus promises to bring exceptional driving dynamics to this vehicle, thanks to methods such as integrating the motor and battery as stressed elements and mounting the rear wing directly onto the suspension assembly.

It also wants to use steer-by-wire, a technology that has long been thought about but has only recently made its way into production vehicles, such as the Lexus RZ and Cybertruck.

But perhaps the most striking aspect of the Theory 1 driving experience is its 3-seat design, placing the driver at the centre of the vehicle, much like the famous McLaren F1.

The car’s light weight is due to the extensive use of advanced materials like carbon fiber and titanium, which are sure to increase the price of this vehicle if they make it to production. In those 2,000 words mentioned above, there is also a lot of talk about 3D printing and recycled materials.

But Lotus says it wants to reduce the amount of “A-surface materials” (those you can touch) to 10 or fewer, compared with around 100 in most cars.

“We’ve had a period of maximalism, where people have had to do better and go further. I think we’ve reached a point where style and technology have reached a plateau. We’re not in a mad race for numbers with this car.”

– Ben Payne, vice president of Lotus Design, quoted by Wired

Lotus’ original philosophy of “simplify, then add lightness” is therefore very much present in this concept, signaling a return to form for the brand after a few years of wandering in the desert.

Finally, while we’re only talking about a concept here, we’ve certainly seen plenty of electric vehicle concepts end up in production in one way or another. Even particularly crazy models like the BMW Vision EfficientDynamics concept ended up being transformed into the BMW i8 sports car.

So it’s possible we’ll see this Theory 1 hit the road at some point. But even if we don’t, it at least shows that Lotus is starting to think about smaller cars again (as it should have been all along…), and hopefully they’ll release a proper electric sports car in a few years.

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