Viewpoint: Is the striking new Theory 1 concept enough to distract from the glaring problems at Lotus?
- Danny Davies
- Sep 23, 2024
- 4 min read
Updated: Sep 26, 2024
After several weeks of social media teasers, Lotus have revealed their new design study concept: the Theory 1. It’s certainly a striking-looking thing, with more than a hint of the wedgy-goodness of Giugiaro’s iconic Esprit design from 1975 – however, amidst increasing concern regarding the brand’s direction of travel, is this really what Lotus needs right now?
At first glance, it could very well be. The illustrious Lotus recipe for light, simple and engaging sports cars has not translated well into their last two models, the Eletre and the Emeya, to say the least. Therefore, the Theory 1’s very existence suggests that the sports car is still intended to be a major part of the Lotus brand going forward, which is a relief to hear – especially after the seemingly half-baked nature of the much anticipated Emira. Therefore, a genuinely all-new, ingenious and simple sports car, inspired by past models from the legendary Lotus back catalogue, sounds like a very exciting prospect; and the Theory 1 appears on the surface to preview exactly that.
So far so good, then? Well, after a read of the press release, things take an unfortunate turn for the worse. For instance, the Theory 1 sees the launch of the new Lotus design manifesto, based around three principles – Digital, Natural and Analogue (or DNA for short) – with Ben Payne, the VP of Design at the Lotus group, saying ‘We want to demonstrate that you don’t need to compromise – with both digital and analogue capabilities working harmoniously in the future car’ (Lotus Cars Media Site). Right from the off, this approach raises questions, as ‘digital’ and ‘analogue’ are two things that appear to directly contradict themselves – how can something ‘digital’, using new technologies, be an ‘analogue’ old-school experience at the same time? The two things just cannot be compatible, making the ‘DNA’ concept seem confused, awkward, and, above all else, overly complicated – something that the Lotus brand cannot afford to be.
This impression of over-complexity continues with a new ‘immersive and intuitive driver system’ called LOTUSWEAR that is being launched alongside the Theory 1. The new system includes features such as haptic ‘pulses’ in the steering wheel to tell the driver when to turn, and the introduction of five drive modes: Range, Tour, Sport, Individual and Track. Again, this is a problem, as one of the main Lotus principles that gave the company an identity was their addiction to simplicity – the introduction of unnecessary, commercialised technology like haptic controls and drive modes, like in every other sports car on the market, means that the Theory 1 begins to lose some of its unique Lotus identity. No one has ever got into an Elise and wondered where the five drive modes are, and this is exactly where the problem lies. Lotus were special in that they did things differently to other brands; problems were solved through ideologies of simplicity and clever engineering solutions, with everything being on the car for a reason, creating the analogue, exhilarating, uncompromising driving experiences the company became famous for. Now, however, this feeling is starting to fade away, with digital, technology-heavy features seemingly overshadowing the search for simplicity and purity, which should be infinitely more important to a Lotus. In other words, it feels as though Lotus have their priorities wrong.
It’s not quite all doom and gloom, though, as some promising statements about the Theory 1 have been claimed that are more in line with what should be expected from a Lotus. For instance, inspired by the Type 49 Formula 1 car, the motor and battery assembly has been designed as a stress member to replace the rear subframe, and directly take the forces themselves from the suspension to reduce complexity – now, that’s much more like it. However, bizarrely, this receives a shorter section within the press release than the part talking about how the daft door mechanism works, which yet again fails to instil much confidence about their order of priorities.
Therefore, to answer the question that inspired this article, is the Theory 1 enough to distract from what is going on at Lotus at the moment? While it looks great and could provide some interesting ideas for future production cars, such as the lack of a rear subframe, I’m not sure it is – especially given the contradictory ‘DNA’ design manifesto and overly-complicated LOTUSWEAR system that create more questions than answers. As a result, the Theory 1 can unfortunately be added to the growing list of problems that are amounting for Lotus, which are starting to get increasingly more alarming.
Suddenly, the incredibly exciting new future for Lotus, promised alongside the launch of the highly anticipated, ‘all-new’ Emira at Goodwood FOS in 2021, seems like a distant memory: the models built under Lotus Technologies have been criticised for diluting the brand’s image, the Eletre has had North America, a major projected market, all-but-eliminated due to the 100% tariff on electric cars built in China, there have been no Emeya deliveries in the UK 12 months on from its launch, initial deliveries and customer communication for the Emira, which wasn’t really new at all, were a disaster, particularly overseas, and the resale market has nosedived off a figurative cliff…and we haven’t even touched upon the elephant in the room yet. Via Autocar, and despite a major increase in sales, Lotus have recently announced a net loss of over $200 million for Q2 in 2024…on top of a $750 million loss last year, where they only sold 7000 cars – less than 5% of what they hope to achieve by the end of 2028, in only four years’ time. Such numbers are pretty hard to ignore.
Therefore, as of right now, it pains me to say that the future does not look promising for Lotus – and the Theory 1 doesn’t seem to have lightened the mood.
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