Lotus SUV may be based on Volvo XC90 platform
Upcoming vehicle will handle ‘like nothing else in its segment,’ says CEO
Lotus’s chief executive has confirmed the company will build an SUV within the next four years, noting the vehicle’s strong suit would, like in Lotus cars, be its impeccable handling.
“It will go round bends like nothing else in its segment,” Jean-Marc Gales was quoted in the U.K.’s Autocar magazine as saying. “If we fail on that, we fail the project.”
The British sports car manufacturer shares a parent company — China’s Geely — with Volvo, so it’s expected the Lotus SUV will use that company’s SPA platform, and share underpinnings with the XC90 and XC60.
Both are relatively light, which is good, considering that’s another hallmark Lotus trait the company will certainly want its own Maserati Levante-size truck to boast, with a target weight under two tonnes, says the magazine.
That Volvo platform is built around only four-cylinder engines, but Gales did note the SUV will come with a hybrid option. The Volvo XC90 Twin Engine hybrid’s 401 horsepower may just be a baseline for Lotus, which has decades of experience making meagre (Toyota) engines churn out impressive power.
Gales said the design would be locked in within the next two months, and that it would be recognizably a Lotus, even if it didn’t boast a sports car-style front end like the rival Porsche Macan.
The SUV would most likely be built in China, though a second U.K. assembly plant is possible, Gales said.
Pricing for the European market is rumoured to fall around the equivalent of between $110,000 and $125,000.
In a separate interview, Gales also confirmed Lotus plans to release two new lightweight sports cars after 2020, with target sales for the brand of 3,000-plus per year when those vehicles hit the market in 2021 or 2022. Last year the company sold 1,600 vehicles.