I, personally, would much rather see Lotus use their expertise to make a lightweight, accessible electric sports car.
Thought experiment: Telsa's 85kwh battery pack weighs 1200lbs and the car itself weighs 4200lbs. It has a range of 250 miles, roughly.
The Lotus Elise weights about 2000lbs. Let's say Lotus is able to make a 42.5kwh battery pack that weighs 600lbs. Fluffing the numbers a bit because electric drivetrains are a little lighter than ICE + Accessories, lets say Lotus was able to make a 2500lbs electric car, based on the Elise. That's a good start.
How much electricity would this setup use? Per
this calculator and specs I've found on the internet, the Elise has a 0.4Cd (not great) and 1.6m^2 frontal area. Substituting our 2500lbs version, that equates to about 17hp needed to maintain 65mph, steady state. 17hp = 12,700 watts. So if we take a 190v system (half of the P85, again) and 12,700 watts, we end up with a ~67 amp current draw at 65mph. This equates to roughly 195wh/mi electricty usage if you aren't caning it. With our 600lbs, 42.5kwh battery, that would give a maximum range of just shy of 220 miles. Maybe not good for a big sedan, but seemingly perfect for a 'lightweight' sports car. Obviously if you
are caning it, it wouldn't go nearly as far.
In terms of power....
V x A = watts. If we benchmark Tesla, again, the P100D ludicrous has a maximum current draw of 1600amps. If we apply that to our fictional Lotus, it would be: 190v x 1600a = 300kw = 400hp. 400hp in a 2500lbs car sounds pretty awesome to me.
