Review: I drove the first made-in-China EV coming under the new quota. It’s not what you think

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The Eletre parked next to the Emira in downtown Toronto on April 24, 2026.Mark Richardson/The Globe and Mail

The 2026 Lotus Eletre SUV is the first new Chinese-made electric vehicle to arrive in Canada under a new lower-tariff trade framework, but it’s not the cheap alternative many drivers were hoping for. It costs at least $119,900 before all fees and taxes, and there’s a higher-performance Carbon edition that costs $179,000. Only 24 Carbons will be sold in Canada. That’s the one I drove recently on the streets of Toronto.

Cheaper cars from makers such as BYD and Chery are not yet confirmed, but Canada’s trade agreement with China calls for 49,000 vehicles to be imported by next March at a tariff of 6.1 per cent. This number will rise to 70,000 a year by 2030, with at least half of them priced at $35,000 or less, but for now, it’s first come, first served, and these Eletres are part of that initial 49,000.

Lotus is first to sell its Chinese EV here because it was all ready to go for North America when it was stalled by 100 per cent U.S. tariffs introduced by the Biden administration in May 2024. Canada followed with similar 100 per cent tariffs five months later. Lotus is majority-owned by China’s Geely Automobile Holdings Ltd., and the cars were already being built at a huge assembly plant in Wuhan. They’d been homologated – tested and approved for sale – for North America, but became untenable when the price doubled.

Lotus is not yet selling the standard Eletre in the United States, where high tariffs still exist against Chinese EVs. It did, however, import 30 Carbons to the U.S. and sold every one, tariffs and all. They were priced at US$225,000 and each one was optioned up to US$245,000, which is about $90,000 above our price. The only difference was the paint colour and that American models had carbon-ceramic brakes. Clearly, we’re getting a much better deal than our neighbours to the south.

“At that time, we thought all our work was for nothing, but now we see it was very valuable because we are first in line,” says Massimiliano Trantini, president and chief executive officer of Lotus Cars America. “We are the only Chinese-owned company that is ready to enter the market immediately and offer to our customers this kind of product.”

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Massimiliano Trantini, chief executive officer of Lotus Cars America, speaks with the Eletre in the background during an event in Toronto on April 24, 2026.Mark Richardson/The Globe and Mail

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The Eletre on display during an event in downtown Toronto on April 24, 2026.Mark Richardson/The Globe and Mail

Lotus already sells the Emira, a $140,000 mid-engined, gas-powered sports car that holds to the 70-year-old core message of company founder Colin Chapman: “Simplify, then add lightness.” The Emira is hand-made in Britain and is a niche vehicle; the Eletre’s assembly plant is capable of building 150,000 vehicles a year and it is neither simple nor light.

“What we think is that, from a government perspective, they found an agreement between the Canadian government and the Chinese government, [so] there will be also an agreement between the U.S. government and the Chinese government,” says Trantini. “That’s what we hope and we think it might happen. We know that President [Donald] Trump is meeting President Xi Jinping soon and we hope there will be some good news. Once this tariff will also go away in the U.S., we will reopen the market as well.”

I spoke with Trantini while driving the Eletre Carbon and I’d love to tell you about its sublime characteristics, but I only drove it for an hour or so back and forth along Toronto’s Lakeshore Boulevard, and shuffled it through downtown traffic for the rest of the morning. Traffic – driving’s great equalizer. So I can only report that it goes like stink, and its grabby brakes stop the SUV with enthusiasm.

As a performance SUV, the Eletre seems to be a well-put-together vehicle, but so are the better established German competition. They all have efficient, heavy batteries and mind-blowing driver-assistance features, so what makes the Lotus stand out?

“This car is the only car that is a luxury SUV but has the price of a premium SUV,” says Trantini. In other words, it’s priced $30,000-$50,000 less than comparable vehicles, which would include the Porsche Cayenne Electric and BMW iX. He’s also thinking of EVs from Mercedes, Lamborghini, Ferrari, Aston Martin and Bentley.

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The dash of the Eletre while looking out at Toronto traffic on April 24, 2026. Like all of its rivals, the Eletre comes with a number of drivers’-assistance features.Mark Richardson/The Globe and Mail

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The rear seats on the Eletre.Mark Richardson/The Globe and Mail

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There is a trunk, something you don’t see in most Lotus vehicles.Mark Richardson/The Globe and Mail

The standard Eletre is open for orders at the six Canadian dealers that sell Lotus and it can be delivered this summer. It has a starting manufacturer’s suggested retail price of $119,900, and rises in $10,000 increments through two more trim levels. There’s freight and fees and luxury tax and regular taxes on top of all that, so you won’t get much change out of $150,000.

It’s good for 600 horsepower and is filled with all the battery and driving technology that Geely can give it, much of it learned from the Volvo and Polestar brands that are also Geely-owned. There’s LiDAR (light detection and ranging) for vehicle and obstacle recognition, 800-volt architecture for ultra-fast charging (if you can find a capable charger), a Dolby Atmos sound system, adjustable air suspension with four-wheel steering and six electronic driving modes. Twenty-three-inch wheels are standard. The Galloway Green paint of the test vehicle is a $2,600 option.

The custom green is not an option for Canadian Carbon editions, however – that was reserved for U.S. models. If you opt for the Carbon, though, you’ll get more than 900 horsepower from the same dual motors and battery pack as the standard edition, as well as plenty of carbon fibre in the trim.

The Carbon is also available for delivery this summer. I can’t tell you if it’s worthy of the Lotus name from a morning’s commute, but I can vouch that the Eletre is more comfortable on bumpy streets than the Emira. No surprise there, I hope.

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The key for the Eletre.Mark Richardson/The Globe and Mail

Tech specs

• Base price/as tested: $119,900/$179,000, plus freight and pre-delivery inspection, plus fees and taxes including the luxury tax
• Motor/Battery: 675-kilowatt dual-motor, 800-volt architecture/112 kilowatt-hour
• Horsepower/Torque: Standard: 600 hp/524 lbs.-ft.; Carbon: 905 hp/726 lbs.-ft.
• Drive: All-wheel drive
• Power consumption (NRCan ratings)/Charging capacity: 27.4 kilowatt-hours/100 kilometres/355 kilowatts (CCS)
• Curb weight: 2,565 kilograms
• Range (claimed): Standard: 400 kilometres; Carbon: 385 kilometres
• Alternatives: Porsche Cayenne EV, Porsche Macan EV, Audi Q8 e-tron, BMW iX, Mercedes-AMG EQE, Lucid Gravity, Tesla Model X

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The Galloway Green paint of the test vehicle is a $2,600 option.Mark Richardson/The Globe and Mail

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