Lotus cuts nearly $50,000 off price of its first electric SUV, before deliveries begin

High performance sports car brand Lotus has slashed the price of the Lotus Eletre, which it dubbed the ‘world’s fastest’ dual-motor electric SUV at its launch in late 2022, even before deliveries commence in Australia.

Lotus – now owned by China’s Geely – last year announced the price of the three variants of the electric SUV for the local market, starting at $239,000 before on-roads. The top-spec variant exceeded $300,000, coming in at $315,000 before on-road costs.

Now, just weeks before first customer deliveries begin, Lotus has cut the prices of the Eletre by as much as $49,010. The latest pricing of the three variants now comes in at:

• Base Variant – $189,990 (reduced by $49,010)
• S – $229,990 (reduced by $39,010)
• R – $279,990 (reduced by $35,010)

This is a significant price drop and is likely to be due to market conditions which have seen multiple brands cut prices on models, months before the actual launch.

Ford did this with the Mach-E last year while Subaru also slashed the prices of the Solterra electric SUV before deliveries began.

The Lotus Eletre is the iconic sports car brand’s first EV and at the time of launch was also its first five-door vehicle. 

The first two of the Eletre variants come with a single motor while the top-of-the-range variant of the SUV is propelled by high-performance dual-motors. 

The Eletre R will also reach 0-100 km/h in under 3 seconds which gets close to the Tri-motor Tesla Model X Plaid (not available in Australia).

This is a major shift for Lotus and it has come out swinging, with the top model capable of going from 0 to 100km/h in less than three seconds.

All three variants of the Eletre are equipped with a 112 kWh battery pack. This can deliver up to 600 km of WLTP range on the single-motor variants. 

The range is reduced in the dual motor-variant high-performance Eletre R which will derive up to 490 km from the same pack.

On the inside, there is a new operating system titled the “Lotus Hyper OS”. It’s derived from the “Unreal Engine” technology from the video game industry to create 3D content and experiences for drivers.

Lotus’ owner Geely Group also has major stakes in Volvo cars, Polestar, Zeekr and it also sells cars under its own Geely brand as well. 

The latest price cuts do not come as a surprise. In recent months, multiple brands have reduced prices on their EV models. Many of those have been at the mass-market level.