- Just a handful of Eletre models were sold in the US last year.
- The all-electric Eletre Carbon started at a staggering $232,900.
- Soaring import duties ultimately eroded the SUV’s business case.
Lotus had big ambitions about selling the all-electric Eletre in the United States. The SUV was supposed to arrive from just $107,000, a figure that reads reasonably against the performance and technology on the table even if six digits is hardly pocket change. An Eletre costing just north of $100,000 never made it to a single American driveway.
Just months after Lotus announced its plans for the SUV in the US, the Biden administration jacked up tariffs on Chinese-built EVs from 25 percent to 100 percent. Lotus was forced to change plans and decided to import a small number of well-equipped models based on the Eletre R, which was initially going to start at $145,000. The new model, known as the Eletre Carbon, cost an eye-watering $232,900.
Read: The First Chinese EVs Reaching Canada Aren’t The Bargains Buyers Were Promised
Speaking with Motor Trend, president and chief executive of Lotus Americas, Massimiliano Trantini, revealed that after the allocation of Eletre Carbon models was sold out for 2025, no other examples have been imported into the country.
What Went Wrong?
“We planned to bring the Eletre into the U.S.,” he told the magazine. “We made all the activity to prepare the car, we got all the homologation. We were ready. When we decided to bring the car, the tariffs started kicking in, so we had to select carefully the car we wanted to bring. There was a moment where, with 100 percent tariff, we could still manage. We decided to take the highest trim—the Eletre Carbon, a fully loaded car—sold then as model-year 25 in a limited edition.”
Trantini added that when the import duty was increased once again, this time to 150 percent, Lotus could no longer find a business case for selling the Eletre in the U.S. market.
While the Eletre is now available internationally as a plug-in hybrid, it’s highly unlikely either it or the Emeya will come to the US, given the Connected Vehicle Rule, which bans new vehicles with Chinese technology. Thankfully, Trantini said that the Emira remains compliant through the 2027 model year. Given that it’s built in the US, rather than China like the Eletre and Emeya, there’s hope it’ll remain on sale for several years to come.
