Lotus announced its first SUV would be revealed on March 29. Aware of the criticism it has and will generate among people who followed Colin Chapman’s motto (“Simplify, then add lightness”), the company put Clive Chapman to disclose the revelation date of the Type 132 and defend that his father would probably love to have built an electric SUV.
To be fair, Clive Chapman states that his father always had a practical car for everyday driving. In other words, the Lotus founder had to carry Clive and his two sisters with comfort and safety. The video in which he talks about that shows Colin Chapman beside a Lotus Type 75, aka Elite – a shooting brake.
Clive then makes an indirect reference to the Land Rover Range Rover by saying that 4x4s became a practical choice in the 1970s to both “do towing, do farming” and also go places. Despite that, Colin had two separate parking spaces in the Lotus factory: one for the company’s vehicles and other sports cars and one “for the practical everyday car.”
Thanks to patent images, we already have a good idea of what the Type 132 should look like. The teaser image also clearly shows that we will see an SUV coupe with the massive battery pack all the electric vehicles have. That should make the 132 reasonably efficient if Lotus managed to make it as aerodynamic as possible. However, that will not make it any lighter, which is what makes us think that it would kill Colin Chapman if he were not dead already.
Clive states that his father was “always pragmatic and practical,” and this seems to be the key for defending the electric SUV. In times when only EVs are expected to survive, focusing on combustion-engined cars would be a deadly mistake. At the same time, SUVs are what customers prefer to buy. Remember that Wendelin Wiedeking saved Porsche from extinction with the same strategy: he gave the brand an SUV, the Cayenne.
At the same time, Clive’s idea that Colin “would love the opportunity to design something like an SUV” does not seem to be convincing even for him. If Colin did that, it would be with the sole purpose of saving his company. We sincerely doubt that the man who created the Lotus 7 would be pleased to design a massive electric SUV.
What Clive says that we can believe is that the Type 132 will come with “a lot of features that would tick dad’s box” and that Colin would “be happy with that.” We’ll only know for sure on March 29. Let’s hope the new Lotus is as good as Geely and Clive are trying to convince us that it is. Having a good name starting with “E” would also be great.
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