An Electric Lotus for the U.S.

Zap — that wild and crazy “we’ll put electric engines into anything” company out in California — announced today that it would be teaming with Lotus’ — yes, that Lotus — to put a plug-in electric powerplant into the new light-weight Lotus APX crossover shown above.

The vehicle will be called the Zap-X Crossover Electric Car and will replace the gasoline V-6 engine with a series of in-hub electric motors powering all four wheels, which the company says will equal 644 hp. That’s a lot of horsepower and because it will be fitted into a vehicle designed for mass production, it won’t be as fly-by-night in the fit and finish department as the Tesla Motors roadster. The engine bay will be filled with a battery pack that will provide a 350 mile range and a quick 10 minute recharge, probably using a special kit, not a standard outlet, although we'll have to wait until later in the week to get a look in person.

ZAP will debut the concept at the National Automotive Dealers Association meeting this week in Las Vegas. ZAP is looking to sell a finished product in the U.S. and we bet that if it looks like the APX and gets 644 hp, it’ll probably sell OK. More photos of Lotus’ concept below.

Comments

Ooh, Ooh, Ooh, Ooh, Ooh... (I like it)

I'm not sure it's fair to say Tesla Motors roadsters will have a fly-by-night finish. They're assembled by Lotus as well, and they have to be good enough for Tesla to charge nearly $100k each.

350 mile range and a 10 minute recharge? Somehow I think not! Maybe a 10 minute top-up to get you another 20 miles or so, but you'd need a huge, heavy, cable (to say nothing of infrastructure) to transfer enough power in 10 minutes to run for 350 miles.

It'll be interesting to see if they can pull this [car] off at all, but what with Proton putting themselves up for sale, there's many obstacles in the way.

LT
Supposedly Lotus was to assemble the Tesla but the one I sat in was more like a kitcar than a lotus Elise. I think the ones so far have been handbuilt by tesla. I'll look into it.

How much do you think they'll sell it for when it makes its debut?

thanks
Mark

Graham,
that's why we have to see what they unveil over the weekend. It does sound strange. Although, because the motors are at the wheels there will be a lot of room for batteries in the engine bay.

Let's see, we got a 644hp AWD vehicle here made by Lotus? That's gonna be stupid fast.

Has the looks of a Mazda. I have to wonder how much that huge heavy battery pack up front will affect handling. What about severe frontal collisions?

Very cool idea. I'd love to have a high performance electric car.

But what an ugly body! That's a butt to be ashamed of if ever I've seen one.