Lotus has always bucked the trend by offering lightweight sports cars without ever wading into the horsepower war, but their priorities have shifted and the British brand wants a piece of the SUV action. And now, we’re getting a first look at the prototype SUV, codenamed Type 132, testing in China under some serious camouflage.
Lotus hopes that they can maintain their DNA in this larger form. Despite the heavy camo, we can get a feeling of it from these spy shots found on Weibo from user Ductile Iron BX. Notice the scale of this vehicle compared to the people next to it. It’s not as big and bulky as some renders have suggested in the past and that’s a good thing for a brand that has famously focused on keeping its vehicles slim and trim. We also know that Lotus sounds committed to ensuring that the Type 132 will be on par with vehicles like the Porsche Cayenne.
The Porsche Cayenne set the benchmark a long while ago and Lotus is hoping to do the same with the Type 132. To achieve that, they’re building it on a fast-charging 800-volt architecture, just like the Porsche Taycan or the Kia EV6, and dual motors. Lotus says the Type 132 will do the 0-60 sprint in under three seconds, which would be right up near the top of the current super-SUV crop. Of course, Lotus is going up against some heavy metal aside from the Cayenne.
Related: The Lotus Type 132 Electric SUV May Have A LiDAR Sensor
The Lamborghini Urus and Aston Martin DBX707 are both lightning quick but don’t forget about the upcoming Ferrari Purosangue or the all-electric Tesla Model X Plaid. Unlike in the past, Lotus is intentionally taking on all of these brands head to head and they’re boldly doing it on a platform they’ve never made on their own before.
Considering that Lotus is planning to show off the car this spring, we’re surprised to see this pre-production model wearing so much camouflage. Expect pricing for the Type 132 to start around $100,000. So yeah, Lotus has folded to economic pressure by building an SUV but consider this, they’re not just following others but instead they’re swinging for the fences.
![](https://www.carscoops.com/wp-content/themes/carscoops/assets/images/icons/arrow.png"){kind=icon}