Lotus Emeya vs Tesla Model S

What's the difference?

VS
Lotus Emeya
Lotus Emeya

2025 price

Tesla Model S
Tesla Model S

2017 price

Summary

2025 Lotus Emeya
2017 Tesla Model S
Safety Rating

Engine Type

Not Applicable, 0.0L
Fuel Type
-

Electric
Fuel Efficiency
-

0.0L/100km (combined)
Seating
-

5
Dislikes
  • Abandons Lotus' lightweight principles
  • Heaviness dulls its performance edge
  • Limited practical storage

  • Sadly, it's not a sports car
  • It's a lot of money
  • Lack of convenient charging
2025 Lotus Emeya Summary

The third film in a trilogy is often the hardest to get right - Return of the Jedi is not as acclaimed as The Empire Strikes Back.The Godfather III is nowhere near as revered as its predecessors.

Which I mention because we’ve come to the end of our Lotus trilogy, as regular readers may have noticed in recent weeks we have tested the Emira and Eletre.

This time we’re driving the Emeya, the third and final member of the brand’s new line-up (at least for now) that manages to combine elements of both its stablemates.

The Emeya is Lotus’ direct rival to the Audi e-tron GT and Porsche Taycan, an electric sports sedan that takes elements of the Emira’s dynamics and pairs it with the Eletre’s powertrain and style.

So let’s find out how this final installment of the Lotus trilogy has a happy ending or not…

View full pricing & specs
2017 Tesla Model S Summary

If you have even a passing interest in the Tesla Model S, you'll have seen the endless internet videos where someone has lined up a Ferrari, Lamborghini, or another fast exotic car you could name, to race against it.

There's a long build-up, usually involving men who can't operate a baseball cap, a drag strip and idiotic words in the headline like "destroys" or "rips", or whatever. There's usually a bunch of honking bros with bad haircuts watching on, already planning their next viral video where they set a perfectly good mobile phone on fire.

It's facile and idiotic and doesn't give you any real clue as to the depth of whatever supercar it has "humiliated" or, just as importantly, the depth of the Model S and its spectacular engineering.

So, I won't be spending the next thousand words building up to the conclusion that the Model S P100D with Ludicrous Mode is up there with the world's fastest production cars from 0-100km/h, because I'll tell you now that it is, and it does it in a claimed 2.7 seconds.

Now that's out of the way, there's quite a bit more to the Model S than a "broken" Nissan GT-R owner weeping into their bento box.

View full pricing & specs

Deep dive comparison

2025 Lotus Emeya 2017 Tesla Model S

Change vehicle