Lotus, always seemingly in a little financial trouble, hasn’t flourished under recent Geely ownership as its Chinese owners might have hoped. Deliveries of the Emira sports car were delayed; the Evija hypercar is yet to hit production; and the Eletre SUV and Emeya super-saloon have arrived just as the world is cooling on the idea of EVs.

This then, the Theory 1, is concept car to grab your attention when times are tough. The company’s next production car will be a second, smaller electric SUV (think Porsche Macan-sized) so the Theory 1 is a kind of reminder that people at Lotus are still thinking about what it means to be a Lotus, past just wearing the badge.

Thus the Theory 1 does everything from ushering in a new design language for Lotus, to showcasing a radical approach to production with just a handful of materials used for the bodywork.

It also introduces us to ‘Lotuswear’, which is an attempt to ‘evoke a sense of raw emotion and pure excitement’ when you’re behind the wheel of this 1000hp electric supercar. How does it work? With seats that can inflate on one side or the other and a steering yoke that can suddenly be ribbed, thanks to textile-based wearable robotics tech being applied to the automotive sector for the first time.

Join Top Gear Magazine’s Associate Editor, Tom Ford, to find out more…

Subscribe to Top Gear for more videos: http://bit.ly/SubscribeToTopGear

WATCH MORE TOP GEAR:
First Looks: https://bit.ly/TGFirstLooks 
First Drives: https://bit.ly/TGFirstDrives
American Tuned ft. Rob Dahm: https://bit.ly/TGAmericanTuned
LISTEN to the Top Gear Magazine Podcast: https://topgear.podlink.to/Podcast
Sign up for our newsletter: https://www.topgear.com/newsletter-signup

Chapters:
00:00 Intro
03:18 Chat with Ben Payne
10:07 Chat with Matthew Hill
16:13 Conclusion

MORE ABOUT TOP GEAR:
Welcome to the official home of Top Gear on YouTube. Here you'll find all the best clips from your favourite episodes, whether that’s Ken Block drifting London in the Hoonicorn, Chris Harris in the latest Porsche 911 GT3 or classic Top Gear clips from Clarkson, Hammond and May. You'll also find the latest performance car reviews from the TopGear.com crew, our brand new series American Tuned with Rob Dahm and the fastest power laps from our in house performance benchmark: The Stig.

This is a commercial channel from BBC Studios.

Service & Feedback https://www.bbcstudios.com/contact/contact-us/