#Lotus Launches All-Electric Hyper-SUV, The Eletre

[Auto Styling News]

The all-new and all-electric Lotus Eletre is a strikingly gorgeous SUV. It takes the core principles and Lotus DNA from more than 70 years of sports car design and engineering, evolving them into a desirable all-new lifestyle car from the British automaker. (* Now 51% owned by Chinese automaker Geely Holdings, 49% owned by a Malaysian holding company.)

Eletre has an elegant and highly exotic look, with active aerodynamics and a dramatic, porous design. The use of pioneering sustainable materials is just icing on this delicious looking cake.

With it's high stance and gaping maw up front, it instantly reminds one of the Lamborghini SUV, Urus, which will be direct competitor in this segment, along with the Aston Martin DBX 707 and the upcoming Ferrari Purosangue. The Tesla Plaid also has to be mentioned in the same breath as these supercars.

Of course, to compete in this realm means one has to look absolutely stunning, in this vehicle delivers.

An all-glass roof offers much light to the interior greenhouse. 

The car has more creases and indentations then the face of an octogenarian actor. Heavy creases on the doors is this car look right, though, and give it an exotic feel. The rear features taillamps hidden in deep crevices, and an elegant light bar. 

The rear of the car is dominated by a carbon fiber spoiler that has its center removed so that it resembles wings, a look inspired by racing vehicles, the company says.

Despite being electric, the company says it offers a true Lotus experience. Optimal structural rigidity and active dynamics, combined with a potent blend of high power and torque, provide the kind of performance that is expected from a Lotus.

The vehicle - which Lotus claims is a "hyper SUV" - might very well live up to that hype, since it will deliver a stunning 900 horsepower and have a 373-mile range on a charge. This more than makes it a strong competitor with the other, gas-powered luxury SUVs in this class.

The company crows, "With powerful electric motors and a low centre of gravity, this new icon makes ordinary driving, extraordinary."

Unlike earlier Lotus models, which could have sparse interiors, this one looks as lush and gorgeous as the exterior.

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Auto Styling News is a blog that covers car concepts, newly released models, and the auto industry.

#Polestar Wows With Handsome Precept #Concept [Auto Styling News]

Polestar is the Swedish company Volvo's electric vehicle division, and both are owned by Chinese parent company Geely. It is headquartered in Gothenburg, Sweden with vehicle production taking place in Chengdu, China.

It is already up and running and selling cars worldwide. And it's turning heads with its clean, Nordic designs.

Polestar recently unveiled the Polestar Precept – a vision of how the brand sees its future styling direction.

The company's division says, in typically Nordic and logical language, "we believe that a car should stand out because every part of it has been thoroughly thought out."

The name “Precept” was chosen to emphasise the vehicle’s role in setting out Polestar’s intent as the contemporary electric performance brand. 

A precept is a manifesto of things to come; a declaration. The car signifies an important milestone for Polestar as a standalone brand, describing a unique design philosophy that remains firmly embedded in Polestar’s brand values: pure, progressive and performance.

“Precept is a declaration, a vision of what Polestar stands for and what makes the brand relevant,” says Thomas Ingenlath, CEO of Polestar. “The car is a response to the clear challenges our society and industry face. This is not a dream of a distant future, Polestar Precept previews future vehicles and shows how we will apply innovation to minimise our environmental impact.

Indeed, the car is not too far in looks from the 2021 Polestar 1, an incredibly handsome vehicle (on sale now for about $60k.)

Precept features an integrated front wing above the SmartZone which accelerates air flow over the long hood. This allows air to attach itself to the surface earlier, which improves aerodynamic efficiency and thus improves the vehicle’s range. 

Minimalistic athleticism, the sculpted form of the Polestar Precept sets the tone for future Polestar vehicles. The vehicle’s proportions define its presence with restrained surfacing and a focus on aerodynamic efficiency. A 3.1-metre wheelbase which accommodates a large battery pack gives the four-door vehicle a very low silhouette, and better leg-and-head room in the back seat.

The front grille is replaced by the Polestar SmartZone, representing, "a shift from breathing to seeing," the company says. An area which once channelled air to radiators and the internal combustion engine now houses technology for safety sensors and driver assistance functions. 

Purposefully gathered behind a transparent panel dedicated to intelligent hardware are two radar sensors and a high definition camera. The LIDAR pod, mounted atop the glass roof, is given optimal visibility as a next step towards increased driving assistance. The Thor’s Hammer-style LED headlight style evolves with separated elements, taking on a dynamic, more robotic and brand-defining interpretation.

At the rear, the wide blade-like light fixture spans the entire width of the car, extending into vertical aero-wings – another aerodynamic feature and a nod to light-weight design.

There are, of course, some flights of fancy, and fantasy, that won't likely be seen on the production car.

Conventional side mirrors are replaced here by camera-based units, each of which extends outwards on an aerodynamic arm. 

The absence of a conventional rear window means that the Precept’s single-volume glass roof extends behind the rear seats and the tailgate itself is designed with a larger opening and higher-mounted hinges improving access. This obviously will be replaced in the production car with a proper rear window for visibility.

That's not to say some future tech won't make it into this car. Inside, the traditional rear-view mirror is replaced with a digital screen, the image collected by a wide-angle camera mounted at the rear of the car.

This technology is already creeping into several vehicles in 2020, including some GM cars like the Cadillac CT6 and some Lexus models. It's a neat feature that allows you to avoid the 3 adult's heads in the back seat because the camera is on the back of the roof.

Chinese Electric Car Company BYTON Unveils Sexy Autonomous electric #KByte Concept [Auto Styling News]

Fresh off a successful round of funding, in which it raised a reported $$ million, Chinese electric car company BYTON has introduced the K-Byte autonomous concept car, and it's a beauty.

The company opines:

"Freed from driving, it is time to expand your personal comfort in your car. Thanks to its intuitive user interface, BYTON K-Byte Concept turns the vehicle into a living and working space. You can enjoy all the benefits of being chauffeured without being confined to the back seat."

The K-Byte's autonomous tech was developed by Aurora Innovation, which was started by the former head of Google's self-driving car division Waymo. The K-Byte was designed by Benoit Jacob. Before joining BYTON, Jacob served as BMW Group’s vice president of design, and was responsible for the design of the innovative i3 and i8 electric cars, and designed 2008's BMW M1 Hommage concept.

With a lineage like that, perhaps Elon Musk and Tesla should be worried about the 2020s and the future of competition in the autonomous electric market.

This car is unique in so many ways it's hard to begin describing it. The glorious (or wild) front end, featuring a beautifully detailed headlamp feature that will either remind one of the Joker's painted on smile, the front end of a 1989-era Mercury Sable, or simply a beautiful art piece. We'll go with the more flattering description here.



The frontpiece is adorned with the clever "B" logo of the company, which reminds one of the Bentley B, or of Bitcoin's, and the BYTON name is appropriately sized here in these images (which are all digital, since not one of these has yet to be built - production is at least three years off.)

Absolutely necessary for this to be an autonomous vehicle are the pieces on the roof and sides, which resemble smokers a beekeeper might use, or elegant lamps used on carriages of old. But even THEY look elegant, and are of a beautiful black lacquer that is in keeping with this vehicle's pretentions - that of a luxury car. And it does look luxurious.

The sides are curvaceous, with a "cut" in the lower door panel, sloping gently to the rear tire, giving it all great depth, and a pointed, dainty rear side panel that reminds immediately of the 2006 Spyker D12 "Peking to Paris" concept (irony noted) a concept that SHOULD have been built, but is now somewhat reincarnated in this concept.

The rear quarters are equally gorgeous, with a wrap-around tail light feature that is thin and dainty and manages to be utterly unique. The rear is instead dominated by a large metal strip featuring again the BYTON B, which looks elegant.

What say you? Should they build it as is, make changes, or give up before they start?


Photos: BYTON website.

China-Backed #LucidMotors Unveils 2018 Air Luxury Sedan [Auto Styling News]

Chinese-backed American car brand Lucid Motors has unveiled a car that will sell for over $100,000 and will put Tesla on notice by offering better range and a more powerful battery than Elon Musk's vehicle line-up. Headquartered in Menlo Park, California, the company is headed by Chief Technology Officer Peter Rawlinson, who is the former Tesla Model S chief engineer.

The Lucid Air, scheduled to go into production in 2017 and hit showrooms in late 2018, will put out 1,000 horsepower and have a range of 400 miles, claims the company. It will come out of a new Casa Grande Arizona assembly plant with about a 100 kWh battery, but an optional battery back of 130 kWh will give it that 400+ mile range. The company has a deal with Samsung SDI to supply its batteries.

That range, along with the stunning shape and gorgeous interior of the teaser/concept model unveiled on Dec 14, will make it not only a competitor with Tesla, but also the BMW 7 Series and the Mercedes S-Class line of cars.

From the side, the large wheelbase tends to set it apart from other luxury cars, though the shape can be compared somewhat to the Porsche Panamera in the rear, and the side's radical indention at the lower doors is similar to the Jaguar F-Pace.

But it's perhaps being too critical to see hints of other designs here, especially since, unlike many early models from Korean or Japanese auto companies, there's nothing that's obviously derivative in the Air. It does quite different in almost every way from all other cars on the road. It's lower, for starters (which is likely necessary to achieve amazing drag coefficients) and it's wheels are huge (seemingly 20" rims.) The roof is a solid pane of glass, which, again, is standard on luxury vehicles and sport- and mini-Utes alike these days, but this is rather elegant here nonetheless.

The headlamps are thin LEDs and are extremely attractive. The rear is quite handsome, with a solid bar across the entire back end, with "LUCID" clearly delineated in the center. That name placement is important for name recognition, and it's telling that they didn't make the mistake (IMO) that Jaguar made when they failed to place their name on the earlier versions of their most recent line-up, which barely looked like Jags.

The joy of a new car company is that there's no "heritage" to look up to, or to deter it from going in radical new directions, but also there's nothing on which to build. Lucid is going to have to start from scratch - not only in design, but also by building a new assembly plant and hiring and training new employees. It's a huge commitment, and we'll see if they're up to the task. Other electric car start-ups like Fisker Automotive have found 

Interestingly, the Chinese company backing Lucid, LeEco, is also behind two other electric car ventures: its own LeSee, which we've profiled here, and the Faraday Future.

Photos: Lucid Motors.

Chinese LeSEE #Concept Car Hopes To Take On #Tesla [Auto Styling News]

Chinese entertainment and consumer technology company LeEco has unveiled its own self-driven electric car.

The futuristic-looking sedan called LeSEE was unveiled at a launch event in Beijing staged by LeEco. The current prototype model has a theoretical top speed of 130 miles an hour, said Ding Lei, head of LeEco’s automobile division, called the Super Electric Ecosystem unit.

The exterior design of the vehicle is indeed impressive. While somewhat Tesla-like it its rear haunches, nothing else resembles it, or in fact, anything, currently on the road. the large LED bar on the front apparently has functional headlights in there (or around it) somewhere, and the overall appearance is muscular and curvaceous.

In what Ding calls the "most beautiful" angle - from above and rear, shown below - one can see the full-glass roof which reaches from the hood to the trunk area. 

The launch featured a colorful mix of tech and entertainment, starting off with a performance by a popular Chinese singer and a demonstration of the tech company's virtual  reality headset device. Ding then delighted the crowd by using his cell phone to order the prototype to move on stage and park itself.

LeSEE was developed in 28 months, during which LeEco forged partnerships internationally to speed up the process.

Without providing technical specifications, Ding said the car will surpass the Model S from leading electric car maker Tesla in "all aspects of performance." That, of course, remains to be seen. But clearly this will, if it is built, be a challenger in the massive Chinese market.