Lotus hypercar is finally ready for delivery

Five years after its presentation, here is the first production Lotus Evija. It has 2,000 PS and requires at least £2 million

By: Alberto Carmone

Dec 13, 2024 at 3:43am ET

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Those who were among the first to order it had to wait a good while, but finally here it is. We are talking about the Lotus Evija, the electric hypercar from the British manufacturer that, after being unveiled mid-2019, is only reaching its first customers this year.

It is a peculiar story of this 2,000 PS electric monster, whose deliveries were supposed to begin by the end of 2020.

All the fault of the pandemic

It took more than four years to assemble the first example at the historic Hethel plant, where the Emira, the latest Lotus with a combustion engine, is also produced. Production - says the brand - was slow to pick up pace partly because of development problems due to Covid, which at least initially forced the company to postpone deliveries to mid-2021.

In reality, it was then January 2024, with the first owner finally able to get his hands on the over £2 million hypercar. However, it is still unclear how many examples have been produced so far and how many are ready for delivery.

Lotus Evija, the configurator

Interviewed by Autocar, the new CEO of Lotus Europe Dan Balmer explained the situation: 'Unfortunately, the pandemic came at the worst possible time for us,' says the British top executive. 'Due to various restrictions we had to stop all testing, as did many of our suppliers.

In any case, Balmer assured that the Evija will be produced for two years, although he did not clarify whether Lotus will actually build 130 examples as originally planned.

The cases of Mercedes and Aston Martin

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It has to be said that Lotus was not the only brand to experience delays in the development of its hypercar. The cases of Mercedes and Aston Martin with their respective AMG One and Valhalla also come to mind. The former mounts the engine used by Lewis Hamilton in his 2016 Formula One car, but production only started in early 2023 after a long series of tests.

Lotus Evija

However, it took five years to see the production model of the Aston Martin Valhalla. Unveiled a few days ago, its production will start in the second half of 2025. In short, it seems that for hypercar collectors, patience is a fundamental virtue.