New Lotus gets 1200KM range

The new Lotus Samira, British mid-engine track-tuned, it's civilized, but under that sleek body,

visceral,

analog. This is what happens when a supercar gets its act together.

But hold on, there won't be Lotus if we stop there.

It's got space for two trunk for gym bags and a glovebox full of excuses, and it doesn't scream at you

unless you ask it to. It's the perfect daily for drivers.

So, are you driver or what?

Lotus have brought out a

brand new

car that is capable of

Hang on, let me just add it to the stage. We'll take that off.

It's gonna be called the

Lotus Electra delivers up to 350 kilometers of pure electric driving freedom with a 70 kilowatt-hour battery.

Okay, so Lotus,

according to their press release, have announced a landmark moment in its electrification strategy.

The introduction of Europe's first and only hybrid technology capable of delivering

950 to 2 p.m. Compared with a driving range exceeding 1200 kilometers and up to 350 kilometers of pure electric range.

This is interesting because

Lotus have been doing a lot with electric cars recently, having gone from a very very firm kind of V6 strategy,

which is lovely and those and those

those V6 and turbocharged engines to a very strong electric car strategy.

This is a hybrid, but it gets tons and tons of range, which is interesting. So, I am

I wanted to talk to you about it a little bit.

It's going to be an ex-hybrid system, which made its debut in China.

And it serves as the reference prototype for the technology.

If you can get

350 kilometers of pure electric range out of a vehicle like this and then get a hybrid as well,

you're going to be laughing. There's a lot of

interesting stuff around this car.

The

ex-hybrid system,

they haven't given very much information at the moment, so let me tell you what they have said.

The car's ex-hybrid system is an exceptionally strong 150 kilowatt generator capable of producing up to

25 kilowatts per hour in suitable conditions. It can replenish the battery on the move,

sustain charge during cruising, and support sudden power demands, helping keep performance consistent on longer journeys.

It's got multi-mode electric first powertrain with six operating scenarios

adapting to speed, state of charge and drive demand,

BEV at all-wheel drive, parallel-wheel drive, idle charging, series discharging, series power generation, parallel power generation.

These are the next generation of plug-in hybrid EVs for all those people that are slightly too worried about having a battery EV

that may not be able to get

charging at home

or anything else. They can switch to a car like this

even around, so the reference platform features front and rear PMSM motors for a combined system output of up to 700 kilowatts.

It's enabling 0-100 in 3.3 seconds, even around 20% battery state of charge the system can deliver up to

550 kilowatts supporting demand scenarios such as mountain pass overtakes.

The platform supports ultra-fast charging from 20% to 80% in approximately nine minutes.

Now, we haven't seen this on any kind of

plug-in hybrid EV so far. Maybe the Chinese ones are coming through that can do similar things, but this is the first time I'm seeing it.

And

it uses a 900 volt architecture

complimented by four levels of regenerative braking to recoup energy in everyday driving.

Working together, battery and fuel unlock a combined driving range well above 1200 kilometers.

The EV only range is up to 350 kilometers allowing most daily journeys to be completed in full electric mode.

That sounds pretty good if you live in a city, although it is pretty big for a city car.

The system is underpinned by a 70 kilowatt hour battery and a 52 litre fuel tank.

It's going to be nice.

Haven't they done some interesting stuff around these

these Lotus vehicles? They're so expensive. That's the only problem with them, but they look pretty good.

What else have we got? 48 active anti-roll bar delivering up to 1400 newton meters with a 10 second response and target roll angle of

less than 1.5 g.

Active rear spoiler with four positions. They're EMBO's six piston front brakes.

Dual chamber air suspension and the Lotus developed tyres tuned for wet,

hesion and high speed stability to harness the platform up to 952 ps potential.

It's quite a car and I look forward to seeing it. Can you imagine 150 kilowatts for continuous high performance?

All of the core hybrid system is an exceptionally strong 150 kilowatt generator

producing up to 25 kilowatts per hour in suitable conditions.

It can replenish the battery on the move, stay in charge during cruising and support sudden power demands,

helping keep performance consistent on longer journeys.

This is Chinese technology tied into Lotus. The first time

I got anywhere near Hethel was to see the Tesla Roadster, which was on its UK launch

in 2007 or 2006.

And the Roadster had been built at Hethel and they were they were showing it in a in a kind of

place somewhere in Norwich and I went up to see the vehicle and it looked exactly like an Elise at the time because it was based on the Elise.

Lotus

have been at the forefront of tech battery technology because of their involvement. I think with early Tesla stuff since the early days

but they've really come to the fore with this kind of this kind of technology. I hope they can build

a smaller city car because it'd be amazing to have a car that was just smaller.

You can see that this car is

is as big. It's another kind of large SUV type vehicle and

that's that's the problem.

I do think I'm just going to take this off the stage and come back to you guys the

battery. The charging technology in Lotus has been amazing and a lot of the Lotus vehicles have been able to charge at very high speed.

So

this is the EMEA

and

it shows a charging power of

443 kilowatts, which set a new record. This was back in November last year

but they'd beaten their own record at the fastest charging electric vehicles using the public charging network.

It uses

Lotus Ultrafast 450 kilowatt DC charger.

The car was able to maximize nearly full capacity of the charger reaching a peak charging power

of 443 kilowatts enabling it to charge from 10 percent to 80 percent in just 13 minutes 35 seconds.

The race is on for fast charging.

It's really interesting

that this was

achieved in extensive heat conditions in the region, high reliability, durability and efficiency of both the car and the charger.

Maybe it helped it because it was warm.

Batteries do much better in hot hot weather.

Lotus is committed to future proofing its electric cars.

So as the charging infrastructure develops its drivers have the confidence that their vehicles will continue to remain excellent for efficiency and capability.

The MEA features

full electric

It features a cell-to-pack

battery structure, which means that 20 percent more cells can be packaged in the same space compared to a standard module architecture.

It also uses a new cooling system architecture that is designed to improve the thermal performance and efficiency of the battery.

The car has a state of the art 800 volt charging system.

Many cars are coming out with an 800 volt architecture now,

which is designed to deliver rapid charging and greater efficiency for drivers no matter what charger they are using.

This technology is also featured in the latest Electra, the company's hyper SUV.

Lotus's ambition is to make it easier than ever to own an EV by providing drivers with the confidence to complete long-distance journeys and go wherever they need.

With a WLTC energy consumption down to 18.7 kilowatt hours per 100 kilometers,

EMEA delivers up to 310 kilometers of range in 10 minutes.

Additionally, the EMEA 2026 model features a WTLP range of up to

379 miles. The range is getting better on these pure electrics as well. That's 610 kilometers, according to them.

Lotus is delivering a fully integrated charging ecosystem,

creating a seamless charging experience with the Lotus cars app and Lotus Hyper OS, the award-winning in-car infotainment system in the Electra and the EMEA.

It uses intelligent EV routes to help drivers locate nearby public chargers, while most people do that,

and it features a reduced range anxiety and can significantly cut travel times.

The system can also suggest alternative routes based on the driver's real-time battery consumption. Will it prep the battery

for fast charging on the way? So do you put a charger in and it will warm the battery? A lot of these electric cars

now need to be pre-warned that they're going to be taking fast DC charging. So you actually tell the battery

about 10, at least 10 minutes before you arrive at a fast charger that you are going to be plugging it into a DC

super fast charger, so the vehicle can

absolutely

maximize its charging range, because there ain't going to be many places you're going to be getting

443 kilowatt charging off a vehicle like that.

Lotus has begun rolling out its ultra-fast 450 kilowatt DC charger in Europe, starting in Germany and followed by other European markets in the near future.

It's their first electric hyper GT, which set a new benchmark for how Lotus drives and feels by combining the company's 75-year expertise in engineering and design

for the latest advanced innovations.

It brings drivers to an electric car that is exciting to drive and performs exceptionally.

That's pretty quick.

How are the how are the networks going to be able to do this? There's megawatt charging coming out everywhere,

but this and the new hybrid car that they've built is kind of doing a really good job of getting somewhere between

let me put that one back up there, the

it's getting somewhere between what the range that we have come to know and love from petrol vehicles

to having a vehicle that will do

absolutely miles and miles and miles and actually takes

understands the charging capabilities and how we move. So having 350 kilometers of electric pure electric range is

amazing before you even need to kick in the hybrid system on a vehicle like this.

I'm pretty tempted by a public, by a PHEV public, a plug-in hybrid EV because I don't have off street parking

much as I'd like to have it and

a lot of people don't and a vehicle like this will get around a lot of that kind of potential worry.

Imagine being able to use that. If it was smaller, it would have even more range.

So Lotus, build a car that is smaller than this and give it even more range and use some of the architecture, the 900-volt architecture

for something like this

would be amazing.

Everyone

keep an eye out for that car. It's going to be really good and I love what Lotus have done.

There's one part around the corner from me. I see it all the time and it's a great looking car. So

nice. Okay. Next up, Denza GT.

Talking about interesting cars, let me tell you a little bit about this one.

Okay.

Start Europe. It's Flash, Europe's flash charging revolution in April. Ready in five, full in nine, cold add three.

A breakthrough in EV charging arrives.

That's ready in five, full in nine, cold add three.

This car's coming to Europe on the eighth of April and it will offer flash charging. It's BYD's

latest blade battery 2.0.

Now, talking about charging, this car is incredible. Flash charging at up to 1500 kilowatt delivers a 10 to 70% charge in only five minutes.

A 10 to 90% refill in just nine minutes and 20% to 97% in 12 minutes, even in minus 30 Celsius.

This is pretty amazing.

They're proud to confirm that its stunning Z9 GT flagship will introduce game changing, flash charging

and the unique principle of ready in five, full in nine, cold add three to European customers

when it is officially launched at an event at Paris's Palais Garnier Opera House on the eighth of April.

Introduced by BYD Chairman, it's weeks away from a global rollout.

Flash charging is designed to break down the final barriers for those customers still resisting a switch to zero emissions mobility.

It harnesses breakthroughs in two key areas.

The latest version of BYD's own charging station capable of up to 1500 kilowatts of charging power

using a Chinese market connector, they say, through a single cable and the second generation of the company's trademark blade battery.

It retains the advantages of its lithium ion phosphate chemistry and uses gains in ion transport to have not only increased energy

density, but also the ability to recharge faster at a wider range of temperatures and with reduced levels of degradation.

In practical terms, flash charging brings the principle of ready in five, full in nine, cold add three

based on its standard recharging times.

Flash charging can take the battery from 10 to 70% in just five minutes

ready for several hundred kilometers more driving and from 10 to 97% full in effect in just nine minutes

and even in conditions as cold as minus 30 Celsius, which can drastically reduce charging speeds

It can replenish from 20% to 97% in just 12 minutes, which is the add three

Now the z9 gt is ready to bring these breakthroughs to its customers in Europe in only a few weeks time

featuring european influence design an e3 platform that is bespoke to the denser brand

The shooting break grand Torah already represents a unique proposition for premium customers

The inclusion of flash charging will give the z9 gt a further technological advantage

Particularly when coupled with the extensive range offered by its 122 kilowatt hour blade battery

Up to 800 kilometers in the rear wheel driven addition

And denders european flagship makes no compromises on performance either

The triple motor version of the all-electric model has over 960 p.s

ensuring a naught to 100 kilometers

of acceleration time of less than three seconds

That's quite a car, isn't it?

Inside will be the verse european vehicle to offer an opera house entertainment experience

So while you're super fast charging, how quickly can you get an opera down?

nine minutes

I don't think so that they tend to be a bit longer than that, but

interesting that you can have a full opera once you are back on the road

um

Because it's been partnered with a french audio specialist called diavelay never heard of them, but they must be good

They use a bespoke speaker setup in dolby atmos immersive audio technology to play sounds precisely around the cabin

we do quite a lot of full audio dolby mixes for our commercials and films when we make them and

Some of the setups are like for 40 speakers. So

This this is coming to cars and it's going to be incredible

What you traditionally would have got in a cinema will be available in a vehicle at some point, I think and it does sound incredible that stuff

um

Delivering greater detail clarity and sound separation the resulting immersion unlocks new levels of emotion

And turns z9 gt into an entertainment space that brings consumers closer to the content they love

Well, we make content like that all the time and it is a lot about sound some of the greatest directors that I've worked with

I've always said sound is 51 of any film

And

There's a truth in it. It's so much time needs to be spent on making sound work and making it good

um

The

The vice president said the introduction of the zenza denser z9 gt in europe marks a very important milestone for our brand

It's the true spirit of denser where advanced technology beautiful design emotional driving come together

It's the perfect choice to introduce the principle of ready in five cold

The ability to add hundreds of kilometers range in just five minutes even extremely low temperatures

Means the z9 gt perfectly reflects our vision for denser technology

Thousands of flash charging stations have already been introduced in china

And byd has committed to a global rollout that will include an initial wave of flash chargers in europe

Further details will be revealed in due course. I'm really interested to see these further details because this is basically taking on the supercharger network

What's the charging going to cost?

How are the how is the uk grid going to deal with?

megawatt charging or 1.5 megawatt charging going forwards for a vehicle like this

I'm really interested to see what what byd come up with and how they make it work

Uh, okay, so let's

Abba we've already played the film. I'm going to um go and into talk about let's get get that down

I'm going to go on and talk a bit a little bit about um

What uh, is going on with?

Very busy

They've got a lot of new cars

And they're really going through

I'm going to turn that right down

I don't know why they play pumping music tracks through everything

It's not going to make us the viewer more excited about the vehicle or maybe it does some of these scoders look good and um

I uh, I think that there's they're bringing out a really interesting range

So let me just read to you a little bit about what they're saying about their cars

They've had record financial results scoda auto group achieved an all-time high revenue of 30.1 billion

I'm an operating profit of 2.5 billion euros return on sales at 8.3 percent

They've delivered a million and 43

900 that one million and 43,900 vehicles delivered worldwide up 12.7 percent

And they've had a strong position in europe

Let me just go back to the main screen

and

Take that off because I'm just getting used to this stuff as I do this more guys. I'll get better at it

Okay, just bear with me, but I'm learning. Um, okay

Electrified models accounted for 25.7 percent of deliveries for scoda in europe record deliverers in India

They're really going for india start production in vietnam broader presence across a cn and the middle east

They're going to double their fully electric lineup with the new peak and pyak scoda vehicles

in

2026

So a lot of vehicles this week have been talking about their strong range and

their

how they are

Delivering exceptional results financially. I've seen bmw have done that this week and

And a few others i've seen cooper had been making quite big claims on it as well

So they're going for it, but scoda particularly who always make great cars, you know people people like them

Have a doubling their fully electric portfolio with these new models. I think that's going to be interesting

To find out what what they're going to be doing and they talk a lot about the challenging business environment

But building a solid foundation

for the future

I wonder what they're going to do about their charging networks or whether they're going to be working closely with

Charging networks here in the uk

You know byd are building out their own mega watt plus charging networks by the looks of it. That's coming to europe

These cars are going to be relying much more on traditional charging and where we are with

charging networks and

The high-speed charging dc charging networks that are available

They doubled deliveries year on year to 280,700 vehicles in

In europe and the l-rock was the second best battery electric vehicle in europe last year

They had 174,900 battery electric and 48,800 plug-in hybrid e v's

So the battery electrics are way ahead of the plug-in hybrid e v's which is interesting

b v's and ph e v's accounted for 25.7 of all scoda deliveries meaning one in four vehicles was sold with a plug

The l-rock became the second best selling electric car in europe topped the bv rankings in the check republic

Denmark the netherlands and slavakia

While placing in the top three in germany austria and switzerland all of these companies these countries

Are beginning to get a pretty decent dc charging network that stretch across the country

So this is making sense that people are being able to have the confidence to start building out these vehicles

and and and and buying these pure battery electrics, especially with

individual countries

Tax incentives for buying them

scoda will unveil the new fully electric epic followed by the seven-seater

Piat doubling the brand's all electric portfolio in 2026 by adding these two models scoda will round off its electric lineup at both ends

And make electric mobility more accessible and attractive new customer groups

Well done scoda keep going. I'm impressed that you have embraced electric

Uh technology in such a way pure battery e v as well. So it's good and you're doing well with

Um with where these cars are being sold. So

That's really good

Last one

I want to talk about poll star when we started poll star

We were inspired by other industries and how they were open about their environmental impact

Even though all cars have a carbon footprint. The car industry wasn't so open

We didn't like that. We wanted to be clear about the impact of our cars

Otherwise, how would anybody know? So from the start our answer has been to tell you everything

Okay, not everything because there's stuff you already know

You know that electric cars have no tailpipe emissions

And that an electric car's biggest environmental impact comes from the way it's made not how it's used

Our mission is to measure follow-up and work continuously to reduce that impact

We map and share emissions data from the extraction of raw materials to measuring high steel

Aluminium and battery materials are refined and transported. It's really good. I've done some really good manufacturing processes

All the way down to the chemicals and paints and adhesives

We monitor the energy sources and consumption of factories and suppliers

We continue to calculate the impact from when the car leaves the factory to the end of its life

Right down to the impact of changing the rubber on a single windscreen wiper

We publish all information in a life cycle assessment

Every poll star has one

Anyone can read it

We know each car's climate impact and we know how to keep reducing it

But most importantly

So do you

So they've come up with a few a full lifestyle assessment for their vehicles

Let's just let me just read some of this a second and just

Tell you what they're saying

because

I think it's interesting that a company can make claims on its environmental data

Um

and are they relating this to their full scope emissions from

Well to wheel as such or not well to wheel anymore. So what they said is that

They've produced a full lifestyle cycle assessment for all models with publicly available assessments covering everything

They're the first oem to publish the full carbon footprint of every vehicle in its lineup giving customers greater transparency

The cradle to gate carbon footprint better than well to wheel

Of poll star five is 23.8 tons of co2 covering emissions from raw material extraction

Through production and delivery to the customer

They haven't talked about ethical solutions and mining and cobalt and what's going on with

Indonesia and rainforest destruction. They kind of have avoided that they've talked about materials and

By what i've seen i might i might be wrong as i haven't looked at the report in great detail

But i'd be interested to hear more about where their emissions occur at what stage of each life cycle and what the impact is on

local communities and rainforest destruction and so on because we have read a lot about this for materials and

Um, particularly refinement for battery materials when they're produced four vehicles

I saw in a report that misades had come out on top in the last couple of years for

They're there. What do they call it cradle to i like that. I like that expression whatever it was

Cradle to gate nice. I'll start using that one

innovative materials in the car's interior further reduce the environmental impact of full star five natural fiber composites develop with

B comp use flax based ampelitex a biobased alternative to carbon fiber that uses 50 less fossil based material

And can be up to 40 lighter than conventional plastic composites

Recycle materials are also used on the car pits

And they've got front luggage compartment and everything. I do like pole stars. They're really nice

um, the Polestar five

Choosing a more sustainable car does not require a compromise on performance

the four door gt offers up to

884 horsepower and

A thousand and 15 newton meters of torque ranges up to 678 kilometers

With an 800 volted

Electrical architecture and 350 kilowatt dc charging capability

Charging for 10 to 80 percent can be completed in as little as 22 minutes

Amazing that's pretty that's pretty quick and Polestar are doing a good job on charging

If you join our charging club, by the way, we can get you very very good rates on charging

so keep an eye on that

And uh, and what Polestar are doing with with charging on those

um

What chart what lease deals Polestar have available and the charging prices across the country

Which we're monitoring continually and sending out to our club members. So please do join up if you get a chance

We're sending out lots of information on public charging networks because a lot of us can't charge at home

So we're looking for fast charging capabilities everywhere. Um, we get the opportunity to

uh

use public charging whether that's ac or dc and

Cars like this with a 900 volt 800 volt architecture are getting super fast at charging

So maybe we won't even need ac charging at some point

But these cars are steep and they're expensive at this stage and most people want to buy

decent

electric cars with good battery life and um

And be able to rely on that battery knowing that it's going to be okay

The as the charging network gets faster for everyone

There will be

More opportunities to own electric cars, but the prices need to come down. These are super luxury cars at the moment

But it looks nice. I like the look at the Polestar 5. It's going to be a good car

I'll be looking out for information on it. I'm going to start uh talking more about

um

New releases because I'm interested in what's going on. There's so much happening in um in

Evie architecture range range blade to batteries all that kind of stuff. So um, let's uh

Let's keep this this is going to roll out as a podcast more than a uh more more than a particular

Live although I want to do this in a live format as I start to build audience because you guys can then come back with

questions or conversations around the footage that you're seeing so um,

So let's put this out there. Let's look at Polestar. Um, I'll try and come back next week

Or I'm planning to come back next week with more

Uh new releases on vehicles and what's happening out there

In the public until then have a great week and thank you very much

For tuning in and I will speak to you soon. Thanks a lot. See ya

You

New Lotus gets 1200KM range

Lotus Samira

Eletre Lotus Electra

Tesla Roadster

Lotus Elise

Dodge Charger

Chevrolet Volt

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