The Lotus Evija X is the second-fastest EV to lap the Nürburgring

Remember the Evija, the all electric 1972bhp, £2 million hypercar from the company that spent over 20 years making the brilliant Elise? With first deliveries imminent, Lotus is now looking to launch a special track-only take called the Evija X, and a prototype has now proven its worth with an impressive Nürburgring fast lap.

German racing driver Dirk Müller lapped the iconic circuit last October in just 6:24.047, making the track-only one-off the second-fastest EV ever to lap the Nürburgring, beaten only by the Volkswagen ID.R with its 6:05.336 time. This also makes the Evija X the fourth-fastest car of all time to lap the 'Ring, with only the outright record-holding Porsche 919 Evo, Volkswagen ID.R and Porsche 956 having recorded quicker laps.

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While its lap was almost 20 seconds slower than the ID.R's, the Evija X's onboard lap video shows it achieving mind-boggling peak speeds around the north loop. The ID.R hit just under 170mph before the compression at the famous 'Foxhole', but the Evija X touched 200mph, just 5mph shy of the the Porsche 919 Evo's speed in the same section. Given its aggressive aero package, a 213mph peak speed on the Döttinger Hohe is also rather impressive, and Lotus even believes the car 'has more to give.' 

The Evija X has enough aerodynamic appendages to fill every F1 wind tunnel many times over. Its new track look includes a bespoke front splitter and aero-canards at both corners with a rear wing the size of a small Norfolk village secured to its rear deck. There is also a sizable pair of side sill extensions filling the open area of the car’s tapered lower waistline. The extreme nature of the bodywork add-ons suggests that under the carbonfibre body is some serious underfloor aero to suck the Evija X to the ground. 

Under this extreme bodywork is a quad-motor all-electric powertrain driven by a 93kWh battery pack, with output at 1972bhp and 1323lb ft of torque, considerably more than the 670bhp and 479b ft of the ID R. Despite the ID R weighing 1100kg and therefore giving it a power to weight ratio of 619bhp/ton, the Evija monsters it with its 1062bhp/ton figure.

Whether the Evija X will remain a one-off lap record special is yet to be confirmed, but we should start to see its road-going sibling hit the road later this year regardless.