Type 135?

[Lotustoronto]

New Polestar Roadster 6 Launched today.... similar to type 135 maybe?.... Thoughts?

You Can Now Buy Polestar’s Roadster—Minus the Drone

The company is taking orders for its 155-mph sports car—but sadly the Polestar 6 will be a no-fly drone zone.

www.wired.com

 

[virtualmacho]

So many unknowns, but perhaps we should put in our deposits? If it looks anything like the Esprit and is narrower than the Emira, I'm in...

 

[TomE]

It's going to be a different (higher) target price than Type 135, although performance specs will be similar. Although Lotus have said they aren't platform-sharing within the Geely group, you would expect there to be some sharing of technologies and expertise.

Polestar 6 (published targets): 650kW/880hp, 0-62 in 3.2, range tbc, weight tbc, $200k

Type 135 (unofficial targets): 650kW/880hp, 0-62 in 3.09-3.5s, 300+ mile range, weight "no heavier than Emira", $100-120k

 

[Lotustoronto]

Quoted from the article.... I mean it's almost a dead giveaway.

"The hard-top convertible with 2+2 seating—meaning those rear seats will be a snug fit for anyone over 8 years old—will be built on a bonded aluminum platform that’s been developed for the Polestar 5. This bonded architecture does away with up to 4,000 rivets that are normally used in the traditional manufacturing of a body shell as metal sheets are clamped together, and replaces it with adhesive and oven curing instead. The main advantage is better rigidity, which should lend the car a more dynamic driving experience. Tighter handling, high roll damping, agile steering—all things most welcome in a convertible sports car."

 

[eriegz]

New Polestar Roadster 6 Launched today.... similar to type 135 maybe?.... Thoughts?

You Can Now Buy Polestar’s Roadster—Minus the Drone

The company is taking orders for its 155-mph sports car—but sadly the Polestar 6 will be a no-fly drone zone.

www.wired.com

View attachment 8148View attachment 8149View attachment 8150

Love the design of this thing, and I'm not even a roadster type of guy! 👌

 

[Matt]

I am so curious about the design of TYPE 135. Will it be similar to Emira or old Elise?

 

[TomE]

Similar size to Emira

 

[KusaKusa]

The Polestar 6 and Lotus Type 135 are on different platforms. The Polestar will be on a bonded platform based on the Polestar 5 sedan, using tech from Polestar's R&D facility in the UK. While this sounds very similar to Lotus, they're different teams and different products. The Polestar platform is a space frame design, more like a traditional automotive design, with stamped aluminum parts. The batteries are in the floor, skateboard style. The Lotus uses the LEVA based platform, which has batteries in a stack behind the driver, a tub design with directly attached subframes, and mostly extruded aluminum. 135 specifically will be 2 seater instead of 4 seater. Polestar is creating their own in-house EV motor with a radial flux design and a two speed transmission. Lotus is considering axial flux motors from Yasa, which is owned by Mercedes-Benz.

The Lotus LEVA architecture can technically accommodate a 4 seater with batteries in the floor, but the max length isn't suitable for the Polestar 5. So it's more likely Polestar has their own platform, with Lotus bonding help, that they shrink down for the 6.

In terms of product differences between the Polestar 6 and Lotus Type 135, the former will be a luxury sporty GT and the latter will be a sports car. Of course the price is a huge difference. Expect the Polestar to be heavier and more bulbous in production body than expected, with tons of power. The Lotus will likely be modest in power, likely debatably underpowered for the price especially vs other EV competition.

 

[Matthaus]

When is the T135 due and how would one put a deposit down now for one? And how much would you need?

 

[TomE]

It's due in 2025/26. You can put a deposit down now with your local dealer, pending Lotus opening the central UK deposit system in (probably) 2024/25.

 

[emiraspain]

We dont know ..or should I say... I dont know, if Lotus will be the lead, or Alpine, but I do recall the possibility that Lotus would manufacture both cars, not just their own, but that does not seem to be decided and its a way off yet anyway. Although reading into it now, it would seem its a Lotus lead project:

"The E-Sports platform has yet to be revealed in its entirety but will be based around a lightweight rear subframe housing batteries and motors, developed by the dedicated Project LEVA (Lightweight Electric Vehicle Architecture) programme.
Said to be 37% lighter than the equivalent structure used by the Emira, it has been designed from the ground up to compensate for the added weight of an electric powertrain and with a view to replicating the typical dynamic traits of previous Lotus models. The batteries can either be stacked vertically behind the seats – in a layout reminiscent of a conventional mid-engined format – or arranged under the floor in longer-wheelbase cars with rear seats."


Although I clearly like the Emira design, I would hope and expect the 135 is quite different in design, BUT my reasoning, that its going to be a whole new tech, is flawed, seeing as the Emira already copies design elements from the leading EV of the group, the Evija, so I guess it is possible it will share a few design cues from the Emira/Evija. I guess the front end will be almost the same and the back will have a similar viewing also.
Im very much looking forward to it, but it will have stiff competition from the porsche, jaguar and one would expect the other germans to get in on the electric sports car act soon enough and 2026 is soon enough for them to come out with something. I dont want to see Jaguar go down and down and so I really hope they step up and bring out another great looking car like the F type, but light enough to compete.

 

[JimH]

https://media.lotuscars.com/en/news...for-next-generation-electric-sports-cars.html This has been around for almost a year now.....

 

[simonb]

Type 135 (unofficial targets): 650kW/880hp, 0-62 in 3.09-3.5s, 300+ mile range, weight "no heavier than Emira", $100-120k

I suspect 300+ mile range will be a different configuration to "no heavier than an emira"
Although TBF to be of a certain weight, the Emira has to be a physical thing

 

[Eagle7]

...

Type 135 (unofficial targets): 650kW/880hp, 0-62 in 3.09-3.5s, 300+ mile range, weight "no heavier than Emira", $100-120k

Considering how electric cars accelerate, I don't see how a car that weighs the same as the Emira, but with more than double the horsepower, isn't going to have a 0-62 under 3 seconds. If the Emira with less than half that power, and having to shift gears through a transmission is doing it in 4.3 seconds, the Type 135 should launch like a rocket.

 

[Pugwash]

It's due in 2025/26. You can put a deposit down now with your local dealer, pending Lotus opening the central UK deposit system in (probably) 2024/25.

I dont think my local dealer is taking deposits.

 

[Bradw]

I'm looking forward to the type 133.

 

[TomE]

I dont think my local dealer is taking deposits.

Several of the UK dealers are. You can place it with one of them and Lotus should respect the receipt date for place in the queue, as they’ve done for Emira.

 

[Porter]

New Polestar Roadster 6
View attachment 8148

I mean this looks cool and all, but Polestar needs to release a wagon version of the Polestar 2, or even some kind of crossover (ugh), not another performance coupe. They did that already with the Polestar 1, so I don't know what demographic they are going after with this.

Give us an electric, objectively great-driving family car that can actually hold a family's gear, which the current Polestar 2 cannot. Triple bonus if it's a car and not a crossover, but that's fine too honestly as long as it legitimately handles, like the Polestar 2 is designed to do. That car is ideal transportation in so many ways, but a midsize sedan format only really works nowadays for people without young kids, or that only make short journeys with them. For active families that go places far away for weekends or to visit family, there's just not enough room in a sedan format to reasonably carry a family of 4 (babies or young kids) and all the gear they typically need for overnight trips.

This stuff is squarely in the classic Volvo wheelhouse and I don't know why Polestar isn't building products that match those use cases. Polestar might have fancy standalone branding now that it's all fancy next-gen electric-only architecture, but I still expect them to be a Volvo. Surely they aren't making a business decision to cede 100% of that huge market to other brands in favor of a small expensive roadster with extremely limited sales potential?

 

[Bradw]

I mean this looks cool and all, but Polestar needs to release a wagon version of the Polestar 2, or even some kind of crossover (ugh), not another performance coupe. They did that already with the Polestar 1, so I don't know what demographic they are going after with this.

Give us an electric, objectively great-driving family car that can actually hold a family's gear, which the current Polestar 2 cannot. Triple bonus if it's a car and not a crossover, but that's fine too honestly as long as it legitimately handles, like the Polestar 2 is designed to do. That car is ideal transportation in so many ways, but a midsize sedan format only really works nowadays for people without young kids, or that only make short journeys with them. For active families that go places far away for weekends or to visit family, there's just not enough room in a sedan format to reasonably carry a family of 4 (babies or young kids) and all the gear they typically need for overnight trips.

This stuff is squarely in the classic Volvo wheelhouse and I don't know why Polestar isn't building products that match those use cases. Polestar might have fancy standalone branding now that it's all fancy next-gen electric-only architecture, but I still expect them to be a Volvo. Surely they aren't making a business decision to cede 100% of that huge market to other brands in favor of a small expensive roadster with extremely limited sales potential?

Polestar 3 full details coming in october

 

[KusaKusa]

We dont know ..or should I say... I dont know, if Lotus will be the lead, or Alpine, but I do recall the possibility that Lotus would manufacture both cars, not just their own, but that does not seem to be decided and its a way off yet anyway. Although reading into it now, it would seem its a Lotus lead project:

Although I clearly like the Emira design, I would hope and expect the 135 is quite different in design, BUT my reasoning, that its going to be a whole new tech, is flawed, seeing as the Emira already copies design elements from the leading EV of the group, the Evija, so I guess it is possible it will share a few design cues from the Emira/Evija. I guess the front end will be almost the same and the back will have a similar viewing also.
Im very much looking forward to it, but it will have stiff competition from the porsche, jaguar and one would expect the other germans to get in on the electric sports car act soon enough and 2026 is soon enough for them to come out with something. I dont want to see Jaguar go down and down and so I really hope they step up and bring out another great looking car like the F type, but light enough to compete.

The (potential) partnership between Alpine and Lotus actually sounds quite similar in scale to the partnership between Toyota and BMW for the latest Supra. Co-development on the specs of a platform, based on parts/manufacturing of one of them, and maybe sharing the dev costs. There's no contact yet so everything's still up in the air, but it would likely trend towards Lotus doing at least the platform manufacturing since they've made similar ones in the past and built up their Hethel facility. Final assembly could be either based on how much design the products share and if Alpine want some manufacturing in house for a low volume product. They may diverge the models at some point in development based on previous interviews saying they're aiming for different specs, but the collaboration is more than just Lotus being contracted to do work or Alpine leveraging their platform.

Jaguar actually has been tight lipped on what they have coming down the line. But it's seeming that they're focusing on moving upmarket and focusing on SUVs. There aren't even any rumors of a halo sports or super car. https://www.autocar.co.uk/car-news/new-cars/exclusive-jaguar-return-2025-trio-electric-sports-suvs And Lotus is actually ahead of the curve for an EV sports car. The only confirmed ones at affordable prices are the Type 135, Porsche Cayman, and Maserati GranTurismo. Otherwise, it's just rumors from Toyota and Honda (with no good hardware to back it up). Literally everyone else is focused on SUVs and sedans lol.

Considering how electric cars accelerate, I don't see how a car that weighs the same as the Emira, but with more than double the horsepower, isn't going to have a 0-62 under 3 seconds. If the Emira with less than half that power, and having to shift gears through a transmission is doing it in 4.3 seconds, the Type 135 should launch like a rocket.

Type 135 is initially looking to be RWD only, and the smaller iteration of LEVA it uses only accommodates one motor. Yasa currently only has a motor with 200-250kW (268-335 hp) continuous power and 250-350kW (335-469 hp) of peak power (like for the Porsche Taycan Sport Response button). Though Yasa may have a new motor design by 2025, when their owner Mercedes is expecting to have the motors in mass production vehicles.