Project CARS 3: Electric Revolution

Lotus jumps into the electric bandwagon with their first ever pure electric hypercar known as the Evija, their first all-new machine after over a decade, and signals the start of Lotus' new era. Project CARS 3 has the keys to the Evija and I'm checking it out what's what.

So, what's it all about the Lotus Evija, you may ask?

The Evija, mirrored by the word "alive", is Lotus' first-ever all-electric hypercar that signals the start of the British sportscar maker's new era since joining the ranks of China's Geely, judging from the fact that it's the first to don Lotus' new logo. While staying true to the Lotus tradition, the Evija is the first Lotus road car to feature a full carbon fiber chassis molded as a single piece and sculpted for better downforce. Aerodynamics plays a key role in the Evija so it's been given active aerodynamics in the form of a rear spoiler and an F1-style DRS, among many others.

With the electric powertrain equipped with the 2,000kW li-ion battery supplied with its management system by Williams Advanced Engineering and a target power of 500PS per e-motor, aiming for a 2K power output and 1700Nm of torque, the Evija is the most powerful Lotus ever made, making it capable of a 0-60mph time in less than three seconds and a top speed of over 200mph. That sounds hyper in hypercar standards but that's just the start because with 1,680kg of weight, it's the lightest.

The Evija has the ability to accept an 800kW charge (not yet commercially available to the public) which makes it capable of getting fully charged in less than nine minutes. In 350kW charge, the Evija can be fully charged in 18 minutes and it has a range of 250 miles by WLTP Combined Cycle standards.

Only 130 of these will be made from its Hethel home plant, each costing 1.7 million pounds plus additional costs, and all have been asked for.

The Evija we got at Project CARS 3 was set to over a thousand horses rather than two thousand as the release notes said but given the chance to get a hold of the Evija in-game, I have a lot of explanations about Lotus' first electric hypercar. Is it good? Is this the hypercar worth living up to the hype? Will this be Lotus' new success story? Of all the questions I came, one drive with the Evija explains it all. Yes, it's good but only just because while it feels a bit grippy for an electric hypercar, it feels so balanced and well-poised for an electric hypercar but it can be a lot tricky to behave despite being four-wheel drive. Man, torque vectoring really toys the Evija a lot, but despite that, I had a lot of fun getting my grips on the Evija any way I could and looks like it demands a serious challenge with some electric hypercar that has more hype than this;

This is the Rimac C_Two. Following the success of its maiden car, the CONCEPT_ONE, the C_Two is the CONCEPT_ONE's little brother that comes with the 120kWh liquid-cooled battery pack and four electric motors bolted in all four wheels, making it capable of unleashing 1,914hp of power and 2,300Nm of torque, hitting 0-100kph in less than two seconds and onwards to 412kph of top speed. Apart from the electric powertrain, the sleek aerodynamic design made it capable of hitting 0.28 cD in low-drag mode and it has a full carbon fiber monocoque with bonded carbon roof, integrated structural battery pack, and rear carbon subframe. It even comes with R-AWTV which replaces ESP and TCS and enables infinitely variable dynamic responses by feathering the torque to each wheel.

The Evija prepares to take on the C_Two for a quick lap around the GP section of the Dubai Autodrome, which makes it the perfect time to experiment with these two electric monsters.

On paper, the Rimac is surprisingly faster than the Evija but because the Evija weighs less than the Rimac, this can get very one-sided. Anyway, enough with the chit-chat because it's time to get the comparison going.

And now the lap times;

C Two - 2:01.896

Evija - 2:02.795

The Rimac C_Two wins but only just because the Evija managed to catch up at the rate of less than a second, which is surprisingly remarkable for an electric hypercar made in Britain.

Like the Rimac, the Evija is the future turned reality and in the event that the world moves on from petrol-powered hypercars, the Lotus Evija is the starting line for the new era of hypercars. Of course, it wasn't really the starting line because there are others before it that signaled this new era, but nevertheless, this new era we live in might sound like crazy but it shouldn't be because you couldn't hear a thing or two while enjoying this new kind of performance it possess. As they said, if you want to move forward, electricity is the way forward, and that is the bottom line.