Lotus Partners with Williams, May Be Working on an Electric Hypercar

Lotus announced a technical partnership with Williams Advanced Engineering, the research division of the same group that owns the Williams Formula 1 team. In the announcement today, Lotus explained that the purpose of the partnership is to “share research and development into advanced propulsion technologies.” It’s not entirely clear exactly what that means, but there’s a good chance it involves hybrid and electric powertrains. After all, Williams already supplies Formula E with its battery technology.

“Our new technology partnership with Williams Advanced Engineering is part of a strategy to expand our knowledge and capability in the rapidly changing automotive landscape. Applying advanced propulsion powertrains can provide numerous exciting solutions across multiple vehicle sectors. Our combined and complementary experiences make this a very compelling match of engineering talent, technical ability and pioneering British spirit,” said Lotus CEO Phil Popham in a statement.

While that’s generally interesting news on its own, Autocar believes it’s the start of something much more exciting. The British publication posits this partnership is actually part of a bigger plan to develop an electric hypercar that currently has the codename Omega. This hypercar will reportedly sell for more than $2.5 million and use a dual-motor setup to send power to all four wheels. It’s said to offer more than 250 miles of range, some form of rapid-charging capability, and a racing-derived energy recovery system.

Since no one at Lotus has gone on the record to confirm the Omega project, there’s no way to tell how much of Autocar‘s report will come to fruition. But if it’s true, expect to see the Omega sometime in 2021.

Source: Lotus, Autocar

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