Callum reinvents the Lotus Elise as an EV that charges in 6 minutes | GRR
Callum Design has teamed up with Nyobolt to create an all-electric sportscar collaboration, based on the iconic Lotus Elise.
Designer Julian Thomson drew up the Nyobolt as a modern reimagining of Lotus’ seminal sportscar, sporting cutting-edge lightweight battery and charging technology.
While absolutely recognisable, the Nyobolt moves on from the Elise in crucial ways, with more exaggerated proportions and bigger wheels. It’s 100mm wider and 150mm longer than the S1 Elise, with a cleaner roof-into-buttress area that’s actually quite Emira-like and is also where you’ll find the type 2 charging port. The waistline has also been lifted, while the front and rear bumpers appear to take inspiration from later Elise and Exige derivations and generations.
What is perhaps more interesting than the visual look, to those die-hard fans of the original Elise, is the fact Nyobolt reckons this EV won’t sport an Elise-shaming kerb weight. Thanks to new lightweight battery technology, it's also seriously quick to charge. Even with a 35kWh battery, the Nybolt is expected to weigh in the region of a tonne when it’s ready. It should be able to fully charge in just six minutes. The rub? The range isn’t exactly Lucid-rivaling, at just 155 miles. Let’s face it, grand touring was never in the wheelhouse of the original Elise.
“The aim was to evolve the design and bring it up to date while keeping that iconic sports car character that was so well received in the Elise,” explains Aleck Jones, creative lead at Callum.
“Typically, you run into feasibility issues with initial sketches and a design loses impact as it moves from concept into reality, but incredibly – and thanks to the close working relationship between Callum’s design and engineering teams – we have been able to realise our early images and unique vision in the real world.
“Nyobolt’s technology allows this car to tick all the boxes that made the original Elise such a desirable drivers’ car with a cult following, but it’s electric. These two things don’t usually come hand-in-hand due to weight and battery packaging constraints.”
The car is a way off being ready, with the first engineering prototype not yet built. Callum will be responsible for bringing the design to life, both sculpting the carbon bodywork as shown, and integrating the electrical systems – battery, motors, cooling and control electronics.
As for when we’ll see the finished item? Hard to say. The battery tech is due to go into production in early 2024. That and the design of the car are fairly far along, given it’s already undergone fast charging testing up to 2,000 cycles without significant losses. The promise is an immediate application and rapid scale-up, at a lower up-front cost, weight and using fewer raw materials.
It all sounds promising and fittingly, Lotus-like. Quite what the thoughts on this will be over at Hethel, where Lotus is undergoing an EV transformation all of its own, we can only speculate.