Styling
We'll nail our colours to the mast: we think the Lotus Emeya looks terrific. It's both angular and swoopy, the angry twin-strip front lights and complex design lines along the sills and bisecting the D-pillar being examples of the former, the short, snub bonnet and flowing haunches demonstrating the latter characteristics. Anything which draws significant attention from all and sundry bystanders, even when it is rendered in flat-grey paint (it's called Kaimu), has to be considered an aesthetic success.
But the Emeya is a big old bugger - at more than 5.1 metres long and two metres wide (excluding the mirrors), it has huge presence, and on its 21s the stance of the Lotus is superb. Our favourite single detail? Peep through those air vents at the back of the car and you can see the shoulders of the fat rear tyres, a real race-car-like conceit on a four-door EV.
Interior
Here's something we never really said about any Lotus from the Norfolk outfit's 'old' era, but this thing has a
terrific interior. There are various bits of material finishing which are top-notch, such as the tactile delights of the column stalks, the laterally split paddles behind the steering wheel which are eminently sensible to operate (they control the drive models and regenerative braking levels), and the cool, satisfying metal of both the steering wheel switchgear and those knurled dials down on the tunnel for adjusting the cabin temperature.
On top of that, the surface materials used are all the finest microfibres and leathers, there's a neat pair of 'pop-up' cupholders on the console, and we even like the arrangement of the three screens in the Emeya - two strip-like devices for the instrument cluster and passenger display, and then a big 15.1-inch OLED portrait infotainment panel dominating the fascia. True, slightly too many ancillary functions are still centred on this item, but it is graphically sharp, responsive to the touch, and has a fairly sensible layout of submenus and icons.
Practicality
Again, the Lotus Emeya keeps delivering in areas of car assessment where you frankly wouldn't expect a Lotus to excel (see what we've done, there?). A 3,069mm wheelbase is little short of colossal, so rear legroom is generous in the extreme. If there's a slight smudge on the copybook of the EV, it's that its swooping headline does limited headroom for taller folk, while there can be an issue for foot space underneath the front seats. But the Emeya regains your trust as, despite Lotus calling it a 'four-door', the tailgate is actually a fastback hinged at the top, offering easy access to a capacious 509-litre boot. Up front is a further 46 litres of 'froot' for owners to use, as well.
Performance
The two powertrain tiers in the Lotus Emeya range, which are 600 and 900, relate roughly to their power output. The 900 has farcical figures of 918hp and 985Nm, resulting in a 2.8-second 0-62mph time and a top speed of 159mph, despite the car weighing more than 2.5 tonnes (there's a whopping 98.9kWh NMC battery in either Emeya, as well as standard-fit four-wheel drive due to the dual-motor layout of both variants).
We prefer the idea of this 600, then, which has still-robust numbers of 612hp and 710Nm, enough to punt the 2,550kg (ooft...) Emeya from 0-62mph in 4.1 seconds and on to a 155mph limited top speed. You get, ostensibly, 360 miles of range from this one.
In practice, this is a beautifully swift and progressive car, with the sort of monster roll-on acceleration you'd crave from an exotic EV, all balanced by some of the better regenerative/blended brakes we've tried on an electric car. The Lotus even makes some appealing synthesised noises as it goes through the motions, although these won't be to all tastes.
It even did well enough on its electric reserves, considering its power, speed and weight. When gently driven on stop-and-go A- and country roads, we eked 2.9 miles/kWh out of the Emeya 600 across 35 miles of driving. And it achieved an overall 22.8kWh/62.1 miles (or 2.7 miles/kWh) after 486 miles of mixed-roads testing, which is a real-world range of 270 miles or thereabouts.
Better still was its 800-volt-enabled ultra-rapid charging, which ran at a steady 300kW at a new 400kw Fastned facility installed on the A1 not far from our base. It went from 21 to 70 per cent SOC in just 11 minutes; fantastic.
Ride & Handling
In many ways, the way the Emeya drives is brilliant, even if it's not very traditionally 'Lotus-like' given the inherent mass involved. Fitted with the Lotus Dynamic Handling Pack, including rear-wheel steering and active anti-roll bars, the Emeya has rich, engaging steering, a sense of rigid body control on its air suspension and Continuous Damper Control (CDC) shock absorbers, and the sort of dynamic ability and surprising agility that belies its kerb weight. It's also a good cruiser, staying suitably hushed and dignified in the 70mph zone, while providing a supple, if taut, level of ride comfort.
The issues come at lower speeds on the 21s, where you can tell Lotus hasn't quite yet got the knack of properly suspending and damping 2.5 tonnes of EV. It's just a bit too brittle and audibly thumpy on poorer surfaces traversed at urban velocity, and while it never becomes unbearably uncomfortable, some of its continental-European rivals (see Value, below) do this sort of low-speed ride quality on large alloys slightly better.
Value
The Emeya is priced competitively in the realm occupied by the likes of the
Polestar 5,
Audi e-tron GT and
Porsche Taycan, with even a lightly optioned-up 600 Sport SE like our tester coming in at £113,000. That's not insignificant cash, but for the vehicle you're getting it doesn't feel overpriced. If you want to step up to the monstrous 900, though, that's a serious £129,990 in its lower Sport trim, and another ten grand again for the Sport Carbon version.
Verdict
In a variety of different ways, the Lotus Emeya 600 vastly exceeded our pre-drive expectations - and, as a result, it's a magnificent big four-door electric. The cabin quality and overall practicality of the vehicle, in particular, are real highlights. It also drives sweetly and has ample performance in spades, but we just have a few reservations about its occasionally gritty low-speed manners that take the outright shine off the Emeya. Is it quite as good an all-rounder as a Porsche Taycan? Possibly not. But it's more than close enough in all quarters to make it a viable and most worthwhile alternative to the mainstream EV GT norm.
