Lotus has begun testing its Evora 414E hybrid, just days after it debuted at last weekend's Goodwood Festival of Speed.
The Evora is one of three cars to receive partial funding from the government's Technology Strategy Board, alongside Jaguar's XJ_e and the Infiniti EMERG-E.
The 414E is a range extender hybrid vehicle powered by a pair of electric motors and a battery pack charged by a three-cylinder 1.3-litre petrol engine. The engine can run on petrol, ethanol or methanol and can be used to either charge the batteries or drive the motors. The battery can also be topped up from a domestic electrical socket.
This is all very lovely, and it's nice to see that even Britain's smaller car marques are making a concerted effort to lower their carbon footprint; however, it's the Evora 414E's impressive performance figures that we're most interested in.
In total, the Evora produces 408bhp and 738lb-ft of torque and, because of the nature of electric motors, all of the torque will become available the moment you step on the loud pedal. 0-60mph will take around 4.0 seconds and flat out you'll be going around 130mph.
To make the 414E feel like a petrol-powered car, Lotus has fitted a virtual gearing system which imitates the feel of a double-clutch gearbox. The Evora is also fitted with a system which emulates the sound of a petrol engine even when the car is running in electric-only mode.
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