Lotus teams up with Centrica to ‘redesign’ EV ownership

Lotus has announced a partnership with Centrica – the parent company of British Gas – to develop a new model for electric car ownership.

The Hethel-based sports car manufacturer is looking to make the electric car an extension of the home, making it capable of storing electricity while reducing emissions. The firm also wants to look at ways for vehicle owners to generate new income by ‘providing services to the energy market’. Though details aren’t given, it’s likely that this latter system would use vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technology to allow drivers to put energy from the car’s batteries back into the grid.

The pair are also looking to ‘facilitate a sustainability program’ which, through the use of low carbon technologies helps to reduce the overall environmental impact made through the day-to-day running of the companies.

Chris O’Shea, Centrica Group CEO, said: “We are committed to helping our customers and communities achieve net-zero and to do so, we must enable the change to electric vehicles. We have the technology, the skills and the scale to do this and our partnership with Lotus is another step in bringing our commitment to life.”

Lotus, which is owned by Chinese company Geely, is currently on track to launch its electric Evija hypercar later this year, which ties into the firm’s plans to be carbon net-zero.

Phil Popham, Lotus Cars CEO, said: “Our journey to net-zero carbon is absolutely lock-in-step with the Vision80 strategy for Lotus – taking us to eighty years of the business in 2028. By then we will have transformed Lotus into a truly global player in the high-performance high-technology sector with a new range of cars that remain true to our fundamental promise of always being ‘For The Drivers’.

“The difference is the energy and infrastructure that will power and support these products in the future – this new partnership demonstrates the progress being made and the ambition of our vision.”