Lotus to unveil an SUV on September 22
Lotus is expanding its family of rare Scura models and will reveal its third member on September 22. Joining the Exige Scura and Emira Scura will be a larger vehicle with a coupé-like roofline, strongly reminiscent of the Eletre (pictured) or its plug-in hybrid sister model, the For Me. Lotus is keeping the exact technical details under wraps for now.
Scura moves from sports cars to SUVs for the first time
“Scura” means dark or shadowy in Italian. Lotus first used the name for the 2009 Exige Scura and revived it this year with the Emira Scura special edition.
The China-market Emira Scura is limited to just nine cars. The model features a special matte grey paint finish, gloss-black details and 20-inch forged wheels. It also comes with sports suspension and Michelin Pilot Sport Cup 2 tyres. Lotus Tech confirms that the nine cars for China will be joined by 60 examples in North America.
The new model’s tall body, roofline and rear-end proportions point to Lotus’s large SUV. In China, the company sells the all-electric Eletre and the plug-in hybrid For Me, a model known in Europe as the Eletre X.
For now, power can only be speculated about
This is where it is worth hitting the brakes. Lotus has not confirmed whether the Scura is based on the electric Eletre or the plug-in hybrid For Me.
Both have plenty of potential. The Chinese Eletre 900 Gold produces 675 kW and 985 Nm, accelerates from 0 to 100 km/h in around three seconds and uses a 112 kWh battery.
The For Me, or European Eletre X, by contrast uses Lotus’s X-Hybrid architecture. For the European version, the manufacturer promises up to 700 kW, 935 Nm and more than 1,200 km of combined WLTP range, with up to 350 km covered electrically.
However, there is no reason yet to settle on either powertrain for the Scura. The Emira Scura also shows that the name does not necessarily mean more power. In that case, Lotus focused on dark styling, tyres and chassis tuning.
European version not confirmed
Lotus is currently referring to the new Scura model through its Chinese channels and has not announced European sales. With the Emira Scura, the company split its small production run between China and North America, so Scura is not necessarily a China-only name.
An Eletre Scura would nevertheless make perfect sense for Europe. The Eletre is already one of the most powerful electric luxury SUVs, and a darker, limited-run variant with a sharper chassis would suit Lotus’s image better than yet another cosmetic luxury package.
Whether Lotus does exactly that or makes the For Me plug-in hybrid even more aggressive will become clear on September 22.
