Anyone who has been to the Norfolk village of Hethel will know the story of Lotus. Back in the mid-1960s, Colin Chapman’s growing sports car business was pushed out of the capital by rapid expansion and forced to set up in a remote site near Norwich. Hethel’s only other claims to fame include England’s oldest living hawthorn tree and a splendid Saxon church.

Even the official Lotus website admits that the site, a former RAF bomber base, was ‘on the edge’. But the flat, open terrain of the Hethel airfield turned out to be perfect for Chapman’s expansion plans and test track requirements. The first model to come out of Lotus’ Norfolk era was the Europa coupé. Now, almost 60 years later, the marque has just built the most controversial car in its history: the Eletre S.

Chapman was obsessed with speed, and his mantra was ‘simplify, then add lightness’. Lotus has thus developed a reputation for lightweight cars, and the performance that accompanies them. The all-new, 2.5-ton SUV Eletre is, then, a big deal.

Most of that weight is down to the EV’s 650kg battery. The lithium-ion pack alone weighs more than Chapman’s legendary Lotus Seven – the iconic two-seater that personified his philosophy of performance through simplicity. The Seven dates back to 1957 and is still built to this day as the Caterham 7.

Chapman might have been able to deal with the prospect of his company manufacturing a bulky SUV, but knowing that the largest and heaviest Lotus ever would also be the first to be built outside of Norfolk probably would have been beyond the pale. Parent company Geely – the automotive giant behind Volvo and Polestar – now has a Lotus plant in Wuhan, China. The Eletre was designed in Coventry, at least.

A coupé-esque SUV with more than a hint of Lamborghini Urus styling, the svelte Eletre certainly looks the business. It may be a sports utility vehicle, but the Lotus boasts sharp, angular lines that more than hint at dynamic performance, as do touches of carbon fibre.

The aerodynamic team at Lotus has been hard at work reducing the drag coefficient to 0.26, helped by a series of vents in the bonnet, lower grille and front bumpers. The most noticeable are located at the outer edges of the rear, and channel air in behind the back wheels and out through the bodywork.

Despite the outsize dimensions, chief designer Ben Payne has managed to give the Eletre the feel of a genuine Lotus: the ‘shark’ nose bonnet, enormous 22-inch wheels, deployable roof spoiler and glass canopy cabin all add serious quality. I’m not so sure, however, about the gimmicky, full-width ribbon light at the rear, which changes colour according to the battery charge. Elsewhere, in a nod to the Chapman philosophy, body panels are cut from aluminium.

The dual motor, all-wheel drive Lotus is certainly fast. Eletre is sold as either a 905 bhp ‘R’ model starting from £120,000, or as the entry level ‘Eletre’ and ‘S’ models, costing from £104,500 and offering 603 bhp.

I drove the mid-range S, with a 112 kWh battery pack that promises an official range of up to 373 miles. That’s trimmed to 310 miles for the barnstorming R, which silently races from 0-62mph in under three seconds – giving the Tesla Model X Plaid a run for its money. Lotus claims the car is the world’s fastest dual-motor production SUV.

Behind the wheel, the S is unflustered at speed, with excellent grip aided by active air suspension and optional active anti-roll bars. Some might also find the optional rear-wheel steering takes some getting used to; it’s standard on the R, as is the Lotus Dynamic Handling Pack, which adds launch control and racing-spec tyres.

The Eletre measures 5.1 metres, but somehow looks smaller when you see it in the metal. Parked next to a chunky Range Rover, the futuristic SUV also looks like it has arrived from another planet.

With the right charger, the 800-volt architecture can add 250 miles in 20 minutes. Which is a good thing, considering I found the predicted in-car range depleted much, much faster than expected (and I wasn’t gunning it).

That, the silly key card entry system, and the incredibly annoying driver assistance alerts aside (if I need a beeping reminder than I’m near the edge of the road I probably shouldn’t be driving a Lotus in the first place) – the Eletre is a very decent first stab at a super-SUV. At least Lotus hasn’t installed any fake engine noises, pumped through the sound system to ‘enhance’ the EV driving experience.

Available as a four or five-seater, the interior is the best I’ve seen in a Lotus: top-quality leather, sustainable materials, and genuinely practical. There is nothing Lotus-esque about the layout, but everything feels premium to the touch. Expect decent head and legroom, plus 688-litres of rear boot space – not forgetting the 46-litre frunk.

Finding your way around the infotainment system and other controls can be tiresome; few of the switches and dials fall to hand intuitively. For example, door mirror adjustment is operated via a button on the driver’s door, followed by fiddly, over-sensitive buttons on the steering wheel. Everything’s there, somewhere, but usually involves a sub-menu. You might have to read the manual, heaven forbid.

Lamborghini and Aston Martin have proved that high-sided SUVs can be a blast, and the Eletre is certainly cut from the same cloth. The pricier R model, which undercuts both rivals, represents great value in comparison, and has genuine novelty value – at least for now. And let’s not forget that the Lotus is an electric vehicle, which waves two fingers at the Congestion Charge.

Judge the Eletre as an electric SUV, and not as a Lotus, and it makes a compelling proposition. The tweed-capped traditionalists will loathe it, of course, but if the Eletre helps a great British brand survive and thrive, I imagine even Chapman would have approved in the end.

Lotus Eletre S - The Numbers

Max Power: 603hp
Max Torque: 710nm
0-62 mph: 4.50secs
Top speed: 160mph
Charging time 0-100%: 5.8 hours
Combined range: 373 miles

From £89,500, lotuscars.com

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