Lotus Type 130 electric hypercar: design, specs and release date

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British marque’s first EV looks set to
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The British marque says the unveiling will take place at an
exclusive event in central London on 16 July. The new car will be
Lotus’s first all-new model since the launch of the V6-engined Ever
sports car in 2009.

The news will be no surprise to car lovers. At the Shanghai
Motor Show in April, the Norfolk-based firm revealed that an
all-electric model was in the pipeline. Lotus has since
confirmed that “several hundred” customers have expressed interest
in the limited-run model, Auto Express reports. 

The carmaker is keeping the Type 130’s design and
performance details secret. But the firm refers to the vehicle as a
“hypercar”, suggesting it will have a radical design and enough
pace to give Ferrari and McLaren a run for their money.

We’ll find out whether this is true when the car makes its
debut in July. In the meantime, here’s everything we know so far
about the Type 130: 

Release date

Orders are expected to open shortly after the car is
unveiled on July 16. 

Only 130 examples of the hypercar will be produced. They will be
“hand-built” at the company’s headquarters in Norfolk, says Motor1. 

Deliveries are expected to get underway next year, says
the motoring website.

Price

There’s no word on pricing yet, but a company insider told
PistonHeads that the Type 130 would have a “seven-figure price
tag.”

Design

According to Autocar, which was shown a “full-size clay
model” of the car, the Type 130 is a “low and wide” hypercar that’s
built around a carbon fibre structure.

The structure’s design is similar to the “teardrop form”
of the Ford GT40 racing car of the 1960s. This allows airflow to
pass around the car with ease, improving its top speed and overall
aerodynamic grip, the motoring magazine says. The teardrop
shape houses a “tightly proportioned” cabin akin to a Le Mans-style
racing machine. 

Lotus’s design director, Russell Carr, told the magazine
that the hypercar was similar in length to the 4.4-metre-long Evora
sports car. The Type 130, however, will be wider at two metres. It
will also sit lower to the ground. 

Carr says the Type 130 has a pair of Le Mans
car-inspired carbon fibre ducts at its rear. These help improve
aerodynamic grip at high speeds.

Motor and performance

The Type 130 will be the first Lotus car to be
co-developed by Williams Engineering, a division of the Williams
Racing Formula 1 team, says Auto Express. 

The two firms have worked together to build a bespoke
battery and motor setup for the hypercar, which is expected to
deliver a power output of 1,000bhp, the magazine
says. 

Autocar says that the car’s battery will be located
underneath the passenger compartment and will deliver power to all
four wheels. We don’t yet know whether the car will be powered by
four electric motors (one on each wheel) or a twin-motor setup (one
on each axle).