Lotus Evija X Prototype Immediately Crashes At Goodwood

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Goodwood Festival of Speed with its iconic bales of hay can be quite the wild event. Crashes are just some of the highlights from the annual gathering, although one in particular involving a Lotus Evija X prototype racecar really has people talking.

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There are a few good reasons for all the buzz. The biggest one is the fact the all-electric hypercar crashed right off the start line of the iconic course. Most of the time, cars wreck out in one of the tricky turns as drivers push the envelope.

But with the Evija X, the instant full torque delivery left a massive cloud of tire smoke followed by the racer veering to the right and into the hay bales before impacting hard, exploding the front end gloriously.

One of the commentators for Goodwood noted that the Evija has four electric motors, one for each of the hypercar’s wheels, postulating that might have been at the root of the problem. He theorized a computer software problem could have kept those motors from working in tandem, thus sending the vehicle hard to the right suddenly.

That’s certainly possible and hopefully Lotus figures out what happened, be it a malfunction or operator error. Considering the vehicle is valued at $2,300,000 this was an expensive crash and of course was shockingly early in the course.

Still, some believe this is a sign of what to expect from Lotus EVs as they hit the market. Not everyone is a fan of the storied brand’s evolution as it moves into the electric space.

Others take issue with Chinese ownership of the British automaker, claiming the crash typifies what happens in such business arrangements.

We couldn’t say what’s really behind the crash, but it’s amazing how it happened right at the start line, something we don’t think we’ve ever seen before.

Images via Little T/YouTube