The glad trade-off for the Eletre’s imposing and typically unwieldy stature is that it feels virtually cavernous in each rows, with the prolonged 3019mm wheelbase affording loads of house for stretched shins and the roofline and sides not so dramatically curved as to limit head room or push occupants nearer collectively.
The Volkswagen Passat-baiting 688 litres of boot house is a boon too, endowing this super-SUV – considerably incongruously, you would possibly counsel – with actual family-ferrying credentials that bolster its attraction as a fleet buy.
Up entrance, a prevailing deal with opulence and digitisation manifests in a cockpit that’s starkly faraway from the cosy, spartan and driver-focused environments to which we’ve develop into accustomed from Lotus, however in lots of respects all the higher for its radically totally different conception.
The primary impression is of an consideration to element and high quality that’s certainly the measure of something with a three-pointed star or quartet of rings on its snout. It’s minimalist, certain, however the switchgear is so satisfyingly, authentically tactile and the mushy furnishings so decadently upholstered as to cement the Eletre’s standing as a full-blown luxurious proposition.
The steering wheel, though gratuitously ‘squircular’ in a bid to push the Eletre’s sporting credentials, is gratifyingly chunky and the controls hosted upon it sensibly organized. There are enjoyably weighty paddles behind it for adjusting the regenerative braking and drive mode and loads of attain and rake adjustment within the column.
Typical buttons and switches are in any other case in brief provide, naturally, however there’s a pleasant clunky weight to the window switches and column stalks, and they’re all about the place they need to be.
You agree into the recumbent, straight-legged posture you’d anticipate of a grand tourer behind the suede-trimmed wheel. The roofline doesn’t lengthen far above your head however you do have a raised vantage level of the world exterior.
The automobile’s main and top-level secondary controls and shows are a little bit unconventional however fairly properly thought out. A slim strip of digital instrument show sits behind the steering wheel, conveying a sensibly chosen choice of data (and it extends throughout the sprint, in entrance of the passenger, to relay related data there too). However behind it’s a usefully giant head-up show and to the driving force’s left a 15.1in landscape-oriented touchscreen show.
Earlier than for much longer, you’ll start to grasp the place Lotus has spent a lot of its improvement funds. The fabric high quality degree – the best way its cabin is offered and completed – is actually formidable. It each seems to be and feels genuinely lavish and splendid sufficient to face comparability with any rival you want – even Bentley. The door audio system are works of sculptural artistry; the cupholders are upholstered and engineered with slowly rising, damped recesses. There hardly appears a single fixture or becoming that hasn’t had severe cash spent on it, all able to persuade a brand new type of buyer {that a} Lotus generally is a world-class luxurious automobile.
Extra divisive are the digital rear-view mirrors, which take a little bit of getting used to and don’t supply the identical diploma of adjustment as you get with a standard mirror. Checking the place of your again wheels, for instance, isn’t any imply feat. Consideration was additionally drawn to the outstanding uncovered speaker grilles, which have been variously in comparison with a chunk of star anise – or, much less favourably, a cat’s rear finish.
The boot is usefully lengthy and extensive. It might swallow a whole lot of baggage, though it’s shallower than these of different large SUVs, and could also be much less prone to accommodate actually cumbersome cargo because of this. In case you go for particular person rear chairs, you don’t get folding second-row seatbacks, which hits outright carrying versatility.
Passenger house inside that second row itself is predictably beneficiant and occupants are properly supplied with modern storage areas and a touchscreen console of their very own. Outright passenger consolation is proscribed by the automobile’s excessive cabin ground, nevertheless, and by the marginally skinny, mean-feeling padding of the seat cushions.
The Eletre’s 15.1in infotainment touchscreen appears barely suspiciously over-designed. It has a number of enticing backgrounds, seems to be very neat and responds rapidly, nevertheless it’s not as straightforward to make use of because it could be, with barely fiddly small shortcut icons and a menu construction that requires a little bit an excessive amount of backward and forward to not be a distraction whereas driving.