Lotus Confirms Evija Name For its 1,000-Horsepower Hypercar; What Does the Teaser Video Tell Us?

Lotus’ highly anticipated hypercar is ready to emerge from the shadows. The 1,000-horsepower maniac will be unveiled on July 16 in London. Lotus also plans to hold a sneak peek of the model at the Goodwood Festival of Speed this week. But before any of that, we finally have confirmation on what has become a point of intense scrutiny about this model. Finally, the Lotus hypercar codenamed “Type 130” has a name. It’s called the Lotus Evija (“Ee-vi-ya”- meaning "the first in existence” or 'the living one,") and it’s ready to take the hypercar world by storm.

2020 Lotus Evija First Teaser

Here we go, folks. If the hype surrounding Lotus’ first-ever hypercar — and first new production model since 2008 — isn’t approaching nuclear levels, it’s about to get there now that we know that the model will officially be called the Lotus Evija. The British automaker announced the hypercar’s name in the lead-up to the 2019 Goodwood Festival of Speed where Lotus will have an exclusive early-bird, first glimpse showing of what we can expect when the Evija makes its world début in two week’s time. To be clear, the concept isn’t going to be in attendance at Goodwood, or at least we don’t think it will. Instead, it will be hidden inside what Lotus describes as a “dramatic light show experience” that will highlight more of the Evija’s exterior details.

Lotus’ stand will be one of the epicenters of the weekend-long automotive extravaganza, and while the Evija will certainly be the most talked-about model in the stand, don’t sleep on Lotus’ other Goodwood offerings. The Lotus Evora GT4 Concept racer will also be in attendance at the booth. More importantly, the Evora GT4 will take its turn racing up Lord March’s driveway. Care to bet that the Evora GT4 will look to make as serious a statement with its hill climb time?

This year’s Goodwood Festival of Speed is certainly looking like a family affair for Lotus. All of the automaker’s current models — the Elise, Exige, and Evora — will also be in attendance, though mostly to attract people to go to Lotus’ stand where they can get swallowed up by the excitement of its new concept. Then there’s Jim Clark’s Lotus Type 25/R6 Formula One race car, the record-setting racer that set the best-ever lap time — 1:20.4 — around the Goodwood circuit. Considering that Clark’s record has stood since 1965, and the circuit’s original configuration has since been changed, nobody’s going to be able to break that record anytime soon.

By the looks of things, Lotus is going to have an action-packed weekend at the Goodwood estate. Make no mistake, though. As exciting as it is to watch the Evora GT4 Concept racer set a time around the hill climb or catch the iconic Type 25/R6 Formula One racer in the flesh, neither car will command Lotus’ stand more than the upcoming Evija hypercar.

That’s the star of Lotus’ stand and for good reason. Ever since the automaker hinted on its plans to develop and build a hypercar, the entire auto world has been waiting with bated breath to see what the British automaker has up its sleeves. Lotus isn’t prepared to spill the beans just yet, but with the Evija’s official debut scheduled for the week after the Goodwood Festival of Speed, you can be sure that there will be a lot of questions thrown in the direction of Lotus once the Goodwood Festival of Speed starts today.

If it helps, Lotus did add a teaser video of the Evija together with the announcement of its name. The video doesn’t last long — it’s only 15 seconds long — to showcase a digital start/stop button that looks like it’s located in the car’s central tunnel. A magical hand pushes the button and the “Evija” name lights up on what appears to be a floating, fully digital instrument cluster. I can’t say for certain what the lights are at the back of the instrument cluster, but my money’s on LED ambient lighting located at the base of the windscreen that stretches from one end of the dashboard to the other. The lights eventually go out and the teaser transitions to Lotus’ logo with a caption below saying “For the Drivers.”

Past teasers of the Evija also point to a super aggressive silhouette of the car’s side profile, including a short front end, a canopy-style cockpit, muscular rear wheel arches, and enough flowing lines to make your head spin. Powertrain details suggest that the Evija will use a 1,000-horsepower purely electric powertrain developed by Williams Advanced Engineering. It figures that since the Evija is pegged as a hypercar, anything lower than 1,000 ponies would be a disappointment. The Evija will also feature an all-wheel drive drivetrain and will supposedly travel as far as 250 miles before its batteries need to get juiced back up.

It’s no longer the Lotus Type 130. It’s the Lotus Evija now, and we better start getting used to it.