Geely-owned sportscar brand Lotus has revealed a concept car that it says highlights the future of intelligent performance vehicles. The OEM also launched ‘The Lotus Theory’, a new design manifesto that will act as the DNA for all future Lotus cars.
The three principles are:
-
Digital, which represents the immersive, intelligent, and intuitive experience.
-
Natural, brings to life emotional, connected, human-centric design.
-
Analogue, which is the brand’s continuous advancement of performance engineering.
In the current automotive space, today’s vehicles are typically made with an average of 100 A-surface materials. Lotus took on the challenge to create Theory 1 with only ten, and they succeeded. This includes the use of cellulose based glass-fibre, recycled chopped carbon fibre, titanium, recycled glazing, recycled polyester, recycled rubber, elastomeric polyurethane, transparent polycarbonate, thermoplastic polyurethane and recycled aluminium.
A key design feature of Theory 1 is the patented Lotus-designed proprietary sports car door system, providing step-in access to the vehicle due to the reverse opening and wrap-over design.
Step on in
Theory 1 also showcases new technology and future concepts. Within Theory 1 is the OEM’s in-house developed proprietary driver system called Lotuswear, an immersive system which aims to deliver a personalised driving experience.
Lotuswear features lightweight, adaptive robotic textile material which has inflatable pods in the seating and steering wheel which reacts in real-time to offer grip, support and driving prompts.
Frankie Youd heard from Ben Payne, president of design, Lotus Group, to learn more about the concept behind Theory 1, and to discuss its design.
Frankie Youd (FY): What is the Theory 1 trying to demonstrate?
Ben Payne (BP):
It’s really an exercise in showing the future vision in terms of where the brand is going and talking about sustainability. Another core concept is the idea of how we produce materials we put into a car and circularity as well as recyclability.
With this project, we set ourselves a target of trying to make the entire vehicle out of 10 A-surface materials – current cars made of an average of 100 A-surface materials.
There are different timelines for the technologies incorporated in the concept, of course.
Some elements – like the data, lighting technology, or even 3D printing inside the car – you can deliver that now. It’s dependent on volumes and price points.
What companies have Lotus worked with to enable some design features?
We have to embrace future technology and look at what digitalisation is at our fingertips, and how we put those things together in a way which actually amplifies experience. Some examples of partners on aspects of the design:
Story continues
Kyocera laser lights:
This is the lighting technology that is embedded inside the car from Kyocera.
It’s effectively a laser module. There’s a reflector at the end, a flexible cable with phosphorus coating – it’s less than a millimeter in diameter, and it produces light at 360 degrees.
These are solutions which are ready for the next stage of production. We’ve got this embedded in the car with the DRLs [daytime running lights] on the front and the taillights, as illustrations of technology use.
It’s a compact solution, too.
3D printed headrest by Carbon:
Another collaboration we’ve had which is super interesting in terms of manufacturing technology is with Carbon. They mass-produce shoe midsoles for Adidas in variable densities that provide super lightweight performance.
They’ve partnered with us to manufacture the headrests in the car. They are extremely lightweight. It’s a singular part so we can vary the density to result in something that is very soft and comfortable, with enough porosity around the speaker system to allow the sound to dissipate. And there are harder points that we can snap back to the carbon structure underneath.
It takes about three hours to print and it’s manufactured as zero waste. Colour-wise we have not altered anything – black works for the car.
Soft robotic textiles by Motorskins:
We discovered a Berlin-based startup called Motorskins; they have a technology termed as soft robotics.
There is a pneumatic system encapsulated in fabric. We have used this technology within Theory 1 to communicate to the driver and passengers through inflatable pods on the seating and steering which offer haptic feedback.
Motorskins use the tech in various applications, one of which is to help people recover from injury in a very intuitive way.
For us, this is about using innovative tech that aids the user experience.
These things are not necessarily production ready today, but we’ve managed to get this to a point where you can physically touch it, (on the steering wheel and seats), see it and understand how it works.
There’s also haptic and active surfacing in the steering wheel. You’ve got feedback coming through the rim, via that pneumatic system.
Inflatable pods for haptic feedback
What materials are used on the Theory 1?
The Theory 1 project is all about recycled aluminium and everywhere you see that on the car it has this gold tint to it to give a nod to the iconic JPS livery on the Type 72.
The wheels are 3D printed in titanium, which is the only other metal on the car. When it comes to sustainability, we looked at what we can do with all the chopped recycled carbon fibre, which is a massive component of that car, and then a flax-based composite. There’s cellulose-based glass fibre, too. It’s the latest generation of glass fibre – glass fibre was also used on the original Esprit.
Could you discuss the design?
The white part of the bodywork, the cellular based composite, is referencing the Esprit from behind. We have very sheer sections, a big twist through the body, and then a really beautiful fender muscle at the rear – very subtly done and satin finish. It offers a massive contrast to the black area above.
There is a fully exposed drivetrain suspension system. If you imagine taking the white glazed area off the car, it very much looks like single seater race car. Everything’s completely exposed.
There is chopped recycled carbon fibre everywhere. Then we have a translucent area where you can see suspension and the brakes. It’s about celebrating the analogue engineering excellence that made the company so famous in the last 75 years and putting all that on show to make it part of the design.
That’s visible everywhere, even to the point where we expose as much we can with the lighting technology application.
In terms of weight and size, it’s minimal, which is totally appropriate for what we want to do.
This is the laser wire and it looks almost invisible. It’s a tiny yellow cable (that’s the colour of it because of the phosphorus coating). You can turn this on, and you see it glows quite brightly. We’ve also got main and dip beam functions hidden in that slot underneath which, again, are tiny. The main and dip beam lighting is also laser on this.
In terms of weight and size, it’s minimal, which is totally appropriate for what we want to do.
The car is less than two meters in overall height and the protrusion is very small. It sits low. You could even get in and out of an an underground parking space. So yes, it’s ‘wow’ factor, but we’ve done it based on trying to improve the user experience.
This is about having, effectively, not really seats in the car. You sit within the structure. Its anatomy is shaped around the driver to save weight. Everything moves to you when you sit in the car. It’s a simple moving pedal box and drive-by-wire system that stops automatically to accommodate you inside the car.
The weight for this of less than 1,600 kilos. That’s the balance of the power of the car. We’ve got two electronic data systems, with a total of 1,000 PS (700 in the rear, 300 in the front), and 70-kilowatt hour battery.
What technology is in the car?
We have autonomous driving capability embedded in the car, there are systems and cameras embedded with a system interface which allows the car to ‘talk’ to you as the owner. When it is put into autonomous mode this will start to show a green flashing light.
For the first time, on a performance car we’ve got autonomous driving technology embedded
We have LiDAR that pops up on the front of the vehicle. For the first time, on a performance car we’ve got autonomous driving technology embedded; it’s exactly the same systems that are present in the Emeya. We can bring those two worlds together; future tech with a performance car.
Then there are the active seating bubbles that come alive on the seat. The seat has the ability, in ‘sport’ drive mode, to grip you a little bit, to provide more comfort. If you sit inside a modern car there are audible notifications and flashing lights – it can be frustrating. This car can give you a little tap on the shoulder with the inflating bubbles. It’s in the steering wheel as well, which can provide more grip, or it can tell you to turn the indicators off by pulsing.
We’re looking at delivering information for the driver in a more intuitive way. It’s not about digital overlap. It has a small screen in the steering wheel, and then there’s a large projected display at the front. We have aimed to avoid digital overload.
“Reviving the spirit of the Esprit: Lotus’s Theory 1 concept” was originally created and published by Just Auto, a GlobalData owned brand.
The information on this site has been included in good faith for general informational purposes only. It is not intended to amount to advice on which you should rely, and we give no representation, warranty or guarantee, whether express or implied as to its accuracy or completeness. You must obtain professional or specialist advice before taking, or refraining from, any action on the basis of the content on our site.
