“I’m not convinced there’s a market for electric hypercars”

Lotus's Theory 1 concept aims to be a supercar rather than an all-out hypercar – with good reason...

An interesting theory. Badoom-tsh. The new Lotus concept car’s name, Theory 1, makes itself ripe for plays on words, but there are a few common themes that follow show cars and concepts.

Some closely preview an upcoming model, existing to get the public – and employees – used to what could be a radical idea before a new production version arrives.

I’m thinking of the Bentley EXP 9 F, which previewed the Bentayga and made onlookers, er, draw a few breaths.

You might call these cars ‘show cars’, so named when big motor shows were still very much a part of our lives. Show cars tell us what’s just around the corner.

Then there are the more ethereal variants, the true concept cars that exist basically to explore new design languages, have a think about or experiment with the packaging of new technologies or to ponder where the market might one day be going.

I think this is what the Theory 1 is. Are you waiting for a car like it? Perhaps not just now, but something on those lines may well be along a few years from now.

I love the idea of a central driving position. My experience of them on the road is limited: a few daunting miles in a McLaren F1, some more relaxed ones in a BAC Mono, although that is basically a single-seater, which isn’t quite the same experience.

In single-seat race cars or karts, it immediately becomes something you never think about, at least for me.

Climbing from a left-hand-drive to a right-hand-drive car for the first time can be odd, because of space to a side you’re not expecting, and the fact that you’re rising into a corner when you expect to be falling. There’s something so pure about being seated in the middle of it all.

I also like the fact the Theory 1 is lighter than an Evija. Granted, 1600kg is still not a number with which traditional Lotus cars were familiar, but it’s a step change in the right direction.

Ah, yes, the Evija. “We’re doing this to explore the brand, but there’s also going to be a real market need at some point,” said Lotus designer Ben Hall about the Theory 1. But when will that point come?

What the new car does manage to achieve is offer a reduced capability over the Evija, to be a supercar rather than a hypercar.

I think it needs to be, because I’m not convinced that the market for the electric hypercar is really there.

It sounds obvious, but there are many, many times the number of people who can afford a supercar at under a couple of hundred grand than there are those who can spend a million quid on a hypercar. Loads more.

The atmosphere is so rarefied at the very top end that even Rimac, originators of the electric hypercar, is struggling to shift all of its Neveras.

Now imagine being Pininfarina, or Lotus, with cars of similar ethos but not – and this is odd to say, given the respective badges involved – the experience of Rimac in this area, trying to convince people to spend on a kind of car that they haven’t made before. It is hard going.

For Lotus, I understand, it’s not just hard going with the Evija, either. As my colleague James Atwood notes, Lotus lost £332 million in the first half of the year, and there were some high-profile personnel exits in the wake of that.

Fewer Eletre SUVs have been sold than Lotus would like and the brave new era under Geely is, for now, stalling.

The cars, as far as we’ve tried them, are good, but they appear to be ahead of where the overwhelming market demand currently is, and hefty new tariffs on Chinese-made EVs will prove doubly unhelpful.

I’m intruiged by the Theory 1, but it may be better that it’s a concept rather than a show car, because I’m still not convinced the world – at least just yet – is ready for it.