Lotus plans to take the Evija to Germany’s Nurburgring to secure the record for fastest production EV.
Currently, the fastest production electric vehicle to lap the Nurburgring is the NIO EP9, a Chinese-built electric supercar with 1,341 horsepower. It managed a time of 6:45.9, which is a ludicrously fast lap that’s only slightly edged out by the Lamborghini SVJ at 6:44.97.
But the NIO EP9 weighs more than the new Lotus Evija, and it has close to 700 horsepower less than the British electric supercar. This leads Lotus to believe they’ve got a pretty good shot at taking the title.
"Yes, we are thinking of the Nordschleife," lead engineer Louis Kerr told PistonHeads. "We think we'll be comfortably quicker than the NIO EP9 there."
The Lotus Eviga debuted earlier this week with an estimated 2,000 PS (or 1972.64 hp) from its four electric motors. Zero to sixty is expected to be under 3 seconds, while top speed is expected to be over 200 mph.
Kerr also said those are conservative estimates. He expects the Evija's acceleration to sixty should be closer to 2 seconds, while 0-186 mph will be even lower than 9 seconds.
The Evija's 70 kWh battery might be small, but it's optimized to produce a consistent 2MW flow for a full seven minutes. After that, the batteries get too hot to maintain performance. The battery is also swappable, but it takes several hours to perform. This allows the Evija to upgrade as battery technology improves, but it won't allow a sort of fast-swap of batteries like how F1 racers can swap tires.
While 70 kWh doesn't provide the kind of range found on higher-end Teslas, it still provides a respectable 250 miles at cruising speed. Additionally, the battery can achieve an 80% charge in just 12 minutes from a 350 kW quick-charger. When future 800 kW chargers arrive, it will be able to fully charge the battery in just 9 minutes. Who knows how much faster it might be able to charge with even better battery technology?
But first, a Nurburgring lap will be a great way to see how the Evija can cope with stress.
(via Autoblog)