One day in March, Che Jujun went to Zhongchun Road to repair the car (the leakage problem of the Model S control panel) and accidentally found a Lotus Center nearby.
▲ Image source: Cheju.com
A closer look shows that it is a semi-black and translucent square box, dotted with the unique yellow Logo of lotus, which is a scientific and technological style and personality.
What does the lotus NYO on the door mean? The staff explained that before Lotus entered China, the trademark "Lotus" had been registered by Youth Lotus, a China automobile company. In order to avoid confusion, LOTUS is translated into Chinese, and NYO is added after English, and the homonym is New-a brand-new Lotus car.
Che Jujun checked, and some of them are right. Lotus is displayed on American and other overseas official websites, and Lotus is displayed on NYO official website in China. Explain that the English special edition is true.
As for the trademark, it is still uncertain. According to official website of the State Trademark Office, Zhejiang Youth Passenger Car Group Co., Ltd. applied for registration of "Leonardo Frosi" twice in April, 201,and the results were "the application was rejected, not accepted, etc.".
Zhejiang Geely Holding Group Co., Ltd. has applied for the "Lotus" trademark for six consecutive times since 20 18, all of which are 12 vehicles. Most of the results were rejected, but in June 2022, there was a record: the trademark transfer approval certificate was printed and sent. June 5438+ 10, 2023 The latest record is that the trademark registration application is being accepted. I wonder if the "Lotus" trademark can finally return to Geely?
▲ Image source: Cheju.com
In the center of the hall is a solar yellow light, which shines brightly.
The pronunciation of Eletre should be: [i''letr? ], a word takes up all the common pronunciations of the letter e, which can be said to be one of the words with the highest proportion of e in English.
Some people may ask: Why did Lotus take this name? Because its cars start with 1956 with an e.
The story goes like this: 1948, the first Lotus car came out, and Colin Chapman, the founder of the engineer, took a very scientific man's name: Mark 1. 1956, Mark 1 1, ultra-low wind resistance, lightweight, aerodynamic design, one year 148 champion.
When the media reported this legendary model, Colin found that Mark 1 1 was easily confused with Mark II, so he directly replaced 1 1 with English Eleven. Since then, all Lotus cars have started with E: Elite, Elantra, Europe, Esprit, Elise, Evija, Emira…… ... ...
Coincidentally, e coincides with the current wave of electric vehicles. Therefore, as the first mass-produced electric vehicle of Lotus, Eletre used three E's in one breath, and the E content was 50%. It seems to show the determination to achieve full electrification in 2028.
▲ Image source: Cheju.com
Eletre's overall shape is quite eye-catching. At first glance, the front of the car has the feeling of Lamborghini Urus, and the headlights have the charm of Ferrari 458 20 16. There are ultra-luxury flavors, but there are few electric flavors. Especially the huge air intake, although there are black technologies such as automatic air intake grille, it always feels that there is a big heart of 4.8T under the engine.
When approaching the vehicle, the pop-up door handle and frameless window can immediately pull back to the ranks of smart electric vehicles.
According to reports, its body has seven groups of air ducts, which can provide 90kg downforce and ensure the stability during high-speed flight, which is also one of Lotus's stunts. But to be honest, "pore design" is more obvious on the concept car Evija, but it is a bit invisible on Eletre.
▲Eletre's lidar: front roof, left and right wheel eyebrows, and rear roof.
What really sets Eletre apart is the four laser radars that come standard on the body. They are located in the center of the front of the roof, the left and right wheel eyebrows and the rear of the roof, and the first three laser radars are all designed with automatic telescope. Usually shrink in the car body to ensure regularity and beauty; When you need to work while driving, it will automatically pop up to ensure good vision and environmental scanning.
This folding lidar is the only one on the production car at present. At the same time, this is also a tribute to the lotus legendary sports car Elan flip headlights.
Che Jujun thinks that this design can appropriately reduce the wind resistance and visual sense of suddenness compared with Weilai's fixed roof design; Compared with the design of left and right fog lamps in Xiao Peng, it can increase the detection field of vision and reduce the maintenance cost after collision. I just hope that the mechanism of stretching back and forth is strong enough.
▲ Image source: Cheju.com
Eletre's interior is properly handled: it is more luxurious than Tesla's minimalist style, and it doesn't steal the camera like Maibakh. The cool color frames the sense of science and technology, and the rose gold ribbon adds luxury and warmth.
It is said that the shift lever is the first time in the industry to adopt liquid metal technology, which is more jewel-like. It's just smaller than expected. I want to keep the comfort of the traditional position and the straightness of the knob rod.
Che Jujun likes the steering wheel design of Lotus best. At first glance, it is flat-bottomed and easy to enter; In fact, if you look at it carefully, it is a quasi-hexagonal design, and the grip will be better. There is an alignment mark on the top, which is convenient to know whether the direction is correct after parking, and it is the gospel of obsessive-compulsive disorder patients.
KEF Audio provides 15 speakers, which is not much compared with competing products, but the maximum power can reach 1.380 W, which is enough to provide shocking sound quality.
Compared with the car before Lotus, the interior is the peak. This has been verified on Emira. It is said that when it was first listed in Britain, fans lined up in a long line, and those who liked the new interior almost burst into tears.
▲ Image source: Cheju.com
Lotus's car is for driving.
Eletre doesn't look big, but it feels great to drive. Spacious space is a good thing, but the external feeling of space needs to be adapted. This reminds Che Jujun of the first test drive of the XC90, especially when driving in the congested urban area of Shanghai, he is still a little nervous.
The test drive is the 828,000 S+ version, with an acceleration of 4.5 seconds per 100 kilometers, which is slightly lower than the 3.9 seconds of Tesla Model X and Gaohe HiPhi X, but based on the performance family, the start is quite agile. Even faster than the 4.4-second Model S that Che Jujun drives every day.
At this time, we should pay special attention to controlling the speed. After all, the bustling downtown area is not a place to perform. The brakes are also quite stable, and sitting in the back row will not feel awkward; However, compared with ordinary cars, the brake foot feels heavier and it is more laborious to step on, so female users need to adapt.
▲ Image source: Lotus official APP
Lotus has three characteristics: lightweight, chassis adjustment and downforce.
Surprisingly, Eletre is heavier than competing products: the curb weight is 20kg more than Hiphi X and 227kg more than Model X. One of the main reasons is that it uses 1 12kWh battery pack, which is more than 10 kWh more than competing products and naturally heavier, which also leads to its slightly slower acceleration.
As a balance, Eletre emphasizes "visual lightweight": in addition to using aviation grade aluminum and new carbon fiber, it also introduces the design theme of "lightweight wings" into the interior, hoping that users can still maintain a lightweight impression visually. ?
▲ Image source: Cheju.com
Eletre's battery is larger, and its battery life is 50km less than that of Model X, indicating that there is still room for improvement in its soft power on BMS.
Fortunately, the chassis adjustment of Eletre is quite fine. After all, Tesla's first car used the chassis of Lotus Elise. The unique 6D chassis technology and track adjustment make the driving of Eletre extremely smooth, even presenting the texture of the chassis of a fuel vehicle. What is rare is that the passengers in the same industry say that they don't get carsick, unlike some electric cars.
Maybe that weight is used on the chassis?
▲ Image source: Cheju.com
The official said that Eletre used the industry-leading streaming rearview mirror for the first time, but we tested the ordinary rearview mirror. I only know that this black technology needs 1.6 million to have.
But there are also some real features: Lotus Intelligent Driving System, and the basic version includes ACC, LKA, TSR, lighting and lane change, full scene parking and other functions as standard. For the latter two functions, you have to spend 32,000 more on Model X and buy an enhanced version of Autopilot.
What's even more surprising is that now I book a car and send a two-year premium version of smart driving, worth 45,000. Functions include navigation-assisted driving, autonomous lane change and automatic on-ramp access on expressways.
Che Jujun thought for a moment for a simple reason: because the hardware of Eletre is redundant enough and the software is calm enough; Or it wants to quickly open the lidar market, simply let users use it for two years for free, and improve familiarity and dependence, which is equivalent to the education market, in order to counter Tesla's full vision solution.
After all, dual Orin-X chips and 508TOPS computing hardware, which are not used, are tantamount to night walking.
▲ Image source: Cheju.com
Eletre's Hyper OS system is based on the third-generation Snapdragon cockpit platform, with real-time rendering and smooth operation. Unfortunately, the interface design is not humanized enough, which is a bit old-fashioned in Windows. During the test drive, the human-computer interaction system has not been turned on, and it is inconvenient to manually operate on the steering wheel.
I hope this function can be unlocked by OTA at the time of delivery, so that the first batch of distinguished car owners can make a smooth call by saying "Hello Lotus".
Finally, Che Jujun put a comparison table between Eletre and two competing products:
Jeju tubercle
In 2022, the delivery volume of Lotus in China was only 65,438+05 vehicles, which was only 65,438+0/65,438+00 vehicles of the niche supercar McLaren. This is extremely inconsistent with the background of its acquisition by Geely, and it must find its dignity at the home of the suzerain country.
As its first mass-produced electric vehicle, Eletre is naturally expected. Simply put, its center of gravity and selling point is in the sense of science and technology, and the performance of lidar is the most noteworthy; There are joys and sorrows in dynamics, and there is room for optimization; The car is a short board and may be spit out by the first batch of users.
Just like the first electric car made by all traditional car companies, you can find the familiarity of fuel-powered cars and the defects caused by the incomplete revolution in Eletre. After all, the reason is that the hardware is hard enough and the software is still too soft.
The new model X has been delivered recently. Although Eleetre is 50,000 yuan cheaper, Tesla's brand power, charging network and service channels, and the possibility of further price reduction in the future will all put pressure on the fledgling Eleetre.
In addition, the economic downturn has made the rich start to be cautious. At this time, the flagship version of Gaohe Hiphi X, which is cheaper than Eletre by 1.5 million, is also a strong rival: the more topical wing door, the design similar to FF 9 1 in the future, the comparable product strength, and a certain user reputation will also divert some potential customers.
If Eletre also produces the standard version of 660,000, the sales volume may be 666.
This article is from Jeju. Com, the author of Easy Car Number, the copyright belongs to the author. Please contact the author for any form of reprint. The content only represents the author's point of view and has nothing to do with the car reform.