With Lotus seemingly more interested in porky electric SUVs than sports cars, perhaps it should be renamed ‘bloatus’?
The dent may be rectified with the upcoming Project 129 EV, but in the meantime, they’ve been beaten to the punch by another Chinese entrant.
The Small Sports Car SC-01 – backed by Xiaomi of SU7 Ultra fame – is a lightweight electric sports car in the same vein as the original Lotus Elise, and its Tesla Roadster progeny, for that matter. It’s now ready for sale and has switched its name to JMEV 01.
Measuring 4085mm long, 1820mm wide and with a height of 1162mm, it only weighs 1365kg despite possessing a 60kWh battery, mounted upright behind the driver to simulate a mid-engined roadster layout.
This is a very serious effort to create a lightweight and good-handling car. A chrome-molybdenum tubular space frame and pushrod suspension with high levels of adjustment give the driver ample scope to set up the car as they want it to handle.
A cleverly-shaped pod houses all major controls including torque level, start/stop, wipers, V2L, demister and, best of all, a mode selector with custom, normal and sport. You can even select between AWD, RWD and front-wheel drive.
It features two electric motors that combine to produce 320kW, with 0-100km/h claimed in just 2.9 seconds and a top speed of 200km/h. The CLTC range is listed at 520km. It’s now on sale with prices starting from US$31,535 (about AU$49k). Check out footage of the car below.
