Design driven: Lotus Emeya – bravery with intelligence

Of all the cars CDN has driven of late, few have provoked as much interest and pause for thought as the Lotus Emeya. It still looks like nothing else on the road even two years after its strangely muted launch back in September 2023. This was a heady time for the beloved British brand with bold predictions of stock market success and even bolder ones concerning car sales. Fate, as it so often does, has an unwelcome habit of whipping the rug out from under your feet.

So it went with Lotus – a conglomeration of external forces conspired to make a nonsense of those optimistic sales charts and share prices. The Emeya got lost in the noise and, for whatever reason, the company itself did not back it with the same persistence and passion that the Theory 1 concept received a year later.

Both cars are the brainchild of design boss Ben Payne – a theoretician who is also able to execute. And while the Theory 1 is the concept, it is the Emeya where the Lotus design team challenged long-established conventions concerning form and proportion. Take the hood, a truncated, dolphin-like form that dives steeply towards the tarmac. This is the design language of electrification that the removal of large displacement combustion engines promised but most have shied away from. It recalls a belief that the late Peter Horbury expressed to me at a private viewing of the Eletre that electric cars should look electric – not a simulacrum of what went before.

There is no doubt the Emeya divided opinion. Some thought it ugly. Others felt it was too far from what a Lotus as conceived by Chapman should be

Consequently, the Emeya is unmistakably an EV while still fulfilling its reason-to-be as a premium GT. To look at it in profile, it feels like a technical product: the surfacing is complex though not overly so and breaks down the massing without looking self-conscious. Of course, there is a function lying behind the scalpel-sharp body sides, the vaunted “porosity” that Payne and his exterior team sought to lower wind resistance and increase range. 

Is it beautiful? Not in the classical sense. Payne is more rationalist than romantic. Plus, the design team was dealing with considerable demands to accommodate the technical innovations embedded within. This technological prowess – active aero grille and rear diffuser – is expressed in the form as well as the function. Like a film with a clever plot, the design language invites repeat viewing.

There is no doubt the Emeya divided opinion. Some thought it ugly. Others felt it was too far from what a Lotus as conceived by Chapman should be. If you were feeling provocative, you could argue that recent Lotuses abandoned the romance of the 60s and 70s in favour of engineering-led forms: the Evora and Elise being good examples. Emeya is in keeping with that lineage.

The interior is a masterclass: strong, layered horizontal geometry furnished by high-quality materials. The seats, made from carbon fibre, are a lesson in ergonomics: I emerged from a 150-mile journey feeling better than when I started thanks to the massage settings. Seat massagers in a Lotus, imagine that.

The real wins for the design team came in the mixed-mode HMI/UX, which pairs the central touchscreen with pleasingly solid physical controls. With a parts bin readily stocked by the Geely mothership, one can imagine there was pressure to borrow from sister brands. Lotus, to its credit, stood firm, and the results, weighty metal switches, speak for themselves. The screen, a giant black rectangle like so many others, is unavoidable but is recessed into the IP to soften its intrusion.

The central console is the perfect place to lean if you are sat in heavy traffic as I was during numerous journeys through central London. And, thanks to the adjustable regenerative braking, you are essentially one-pedal driving, which alleviates the misery of it all. Indeed, the Emeya makes for an easy-going and helpful companion. It is agile, despite its size, charges extremely quickly providing you are at the right power outlet and has decent range.

It’s behind the wheel where the Lotus-ness of the Emeya cuts through the bullshit. In 600 form, which is the definitive iteration, it is rapid. In 900, even the most potent road users swiftly become a dot in your rearview mirror. The main thing is that it's engaging in a way that so many EVs, even ones with sporting pretensions, are not. There is no way anyone will mistake it for a lightweight sports car – it’s more like helming a spaceship. 

Bravery has been in short supply in car design. Bravery with intelligence even more so. The Emeya is both and that is an achievement worth celebrating

Progress is effortless, quiet and swift, accompanied by pleasing electronic hum. Crucially, it feels like a car for drivers with great feedback from the wheel rather than the typical EV experience: blindingly quick but with a sense that the car is making decisions for you. In short, it delivers on all the promises of a GT. The Emeya is a reminder that electric cars can be superior grand tourers. Pace is already a given with the powertrain, so the battleground becomes range, which is ever increasing.

With all these arguments in its favour, the Lotus Emeya deserves to be a success. It may yet be. As always with a car launch, timing is everything. The Emeya arrived just as the heralded all-electric future was being questioned. The upshot is you can pick up a nearly new one for relative peanuts compared to the original list price. Lotus is currently working on a hybrid version with a continent-crossing range that will make the case for the defence all the more compelling. However, with the arrival of a V8 Emira, the grand tourer could again play second fiddle. 

My hope is that the Lotus Emeya will be a sleeper hit that consumers will gradually come to appreciate, rather than a brilliant but misunderstood failure. But then, certain brands come with expectations and consumers can be surprisingly conservative. Bravery has been in short supply in car design. Bravery with intelligence even more so. The Emeya is both and that is an achievement worth celebrating.