Founder. Environmentalist. EV Enthusiast. Dad.

I test the Lotus (Geely) Emeya GT – My initial thoughts (as a Tesla Driver for 10 years)

So today I had a test drive of the Lotus (Geely) Emeya (102kWh) as a possible replacement for our Tesla Model S P100D, here is my quick review in case it’s of interest to anyone in a similar position. Remember this is a £89K-£175K GT Car made in China so it’s a premium car, the spec I’d want is £166K… which isn’t much more than the original cost of my Model S but a lot higher than the Plaid vehicles! 🤔

Things I loved ❤️

  • SELF CLOSING & OPENING DOORS (both front and rear), why Tesla never did these on the new Model S is beyond me, it’s such a nice experience (shhh Model X owners).
  • Active Spoiler, it feels sportier and whilst I wasn’t going to notice it today in the wet it’s great to see (again shhh Model X owners).
  • Active Diffuser and Front Spoiler to reduce drag or increase downforce – You could argue more to go wrong but it’s nice to see these innovations.
  • Active Air Suspension performed similar to the newer Model S (2019-2023+) – It’s impressive but so is the later Model S suspension
  • Customisable Brake Calipers – I always thought 2 colours from Tesla is a bit limiting
  • Great Wheel Choice
  • No ON/OFF button to start!
  • The front end I think looks great, it’s quite aggressive, the rear is good as well although prone to getting dirty through the air vents.
  • Active rear wheel steering (makes tight turns better).
  • Capable of 350kW rapid charging
  • Driver seats that grip you when in Sport Mode (although it’s not adjustable so not as good for larger people I suspect).
  • Intelligent Roof Glass (it’s electronically controlled and can do patterns or fully clear or fully opaque) a little gimmicky but very nice (although £4K)
  • Wide selection of options (e.g. Carbon Pack), some a little daunting and easy to increase the price up of the car quickly!
  • Alcantara Steering Wheel, it felt great albeit slightly too big and far to many buttons and paddles.
  • Front passenger has a touch screen to control media alongside the main display.
  • Electronic Towbar (option)
  • 2 Speed Motors on the R model (similar to the Taycan I suspect), I didn’t experience this in the test drive sadly.
  • Generally superb fit and finish, excluding the bottom of the doors which felt a bit cheap.
  • Geely clearly are going down the LIDAR route, the car has these sensors hidden away and they pop out (sides and roof) when on full cruise control, it’s capable of full self driving in the future.

Things that were OK 🤷‍♂️

  • The UI was fine, you’d get used to it
  • Side Cameras – Feel like someone ticked the option on the first day in the design studio and then they struggled to implement them perfectly
  • Keyless Entry / Remote Boot (didn’t work that well) – No idea how secure this actually is, has a keycard like Model 3/Y as well.
  • Executive Seat Pack is clearly the best but then you can only have it set as a 4 seater and the rear seats don’t fold so it’s very restrictive.
  • HUD is nice to have.
  • I only test drove the middle tier (S variant) so the performance was clearly lacking (4.15s 0-60) compared to the R Variant, so it wasn’t that impressive compared to my old 2017 car.

Things that I disliked 🤬

  • Regen isn’t anywhere strong enough (companies that are trying to get petrol car drivers to convert are so narrow-minded here, why not offer higher levels for those that want it but hide it away in the menus)
  • Poor Camera Quality, my 2017 S has superior cameras, albeit these are 360 cameras but the latest HW4 Camera system on Model Y is vastly superior.
  • The boot space is laughable, it’s incredible what Tesla did here with the S, we’re spoilt.
  • The frunk space is hilarious, I just don’t understand how it can be so bad, it’s been designed from the ground up so why so small!
  • Unlike Tesla (and Porsche) someone comes out with you on the test drive, it’s nice to just go out alone in my opinion, although I didn’t ask so that might have been an option. The chap was knowledgable, friendly, answered most of my questions and didn’t try and convert me to buy a petrol car instead so they’re doing well here.
  • Rear Screen only allows you to control heating/music etc, no YouTube etc – Why? Comes with child lock.
  • Arm Rest / Transmission Tunnel makes the cockpit feel quite cluttered / tight.
  • The Side Profile and the C Pillar feels like an odd shape, but it’s vastly superior in real life than in pictures.
  • Creep Mode Only…
  • The area that holds the Head Up Display is reflected right into where your eyes look, it’s beyond distracting, I’d say it’s borderline dangerous, it can be partly mitigated by lowering your seat so you sit further down/back from it. Needs soft dash material which they don’t offer or no HUD.
  • Maps didn’t load, they said it only works once the car was activated, this showed me concerns with the software.

Overall opinion

It’s a really well spec’d vehicle (as you’d expect for £150K) that comes with a much better selection of options to Tesla to make the car feel unique to you, a few annoyances that will likely put off many Tesla drivers but if you can overcome those hurdles and don’t fancy a LHD Model S it’s likely a good fit, even if you have to pretend it’s not a Geely with a Lotus badge stuck on it, 7/10.

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