This is the new Lotus E-R9, an official design study from the British carmaker for a pure electric endurance race car for the 2030 racing season. The dramatic concept was developed by Richard Hill, Lotus’ Chief Aerodynamicist, and his team, as well as Louis Kerr, principal platform engineer on the Lotus Evija electric hypercar.
The new Lotus E-R9 comes with a fighter
jet-style canopy mounted in a ‘delta-wing’ upper body and features many
aerodynamic innovations, including what Lotus calls ‘morphing’ body panels and
vertically mounted control surfaces.
The ‘morphing’ body panels are located
across the delta-wing profile of the concept and can change their shape and
attitude to the airflow either at the push of a button or automatically via
performance sensor inputs. The idea here is these panels can deliver minimum
drag down the straights and maximum downforce in the corners.
The vertical control surfaces at the rear
of the Lotus E-R9 are there to help it change direction, “without the
limitations of grip at the tire contact patch” according to the carmaker. The
result is an endurance racer “that’s partly driven like a car and partly flown
like a fighter jet”. R stands for Endurance Racer, while the number 9 pays
tribute to the company’s racing past, and more specifically to the Lotus Mark
IX, which was the company’s first race car to compete at the 24 Hours of Le
Mans in 1955.
Under its computer-generated skin, the
Lotus E-R9 features an advanced electric drivetrain that powers each wheel
independently and features torque vectoring. “Battery energy density and power
density are developing significantly year on year,” said Louis Kerr. “Before
2030, we’ll have mixed cell chemistry batteries that give the best of both
worlds, as well as the ability to ‘hot-swap’ batteries during pitstops.”