Lotus teams with British music producer Patrick Patrikios for Evija hypercar sounds

With most of the automotive world turning to electric vehicles to meet rising emission standards all around the world, some other things automotive enthusiasts love about sports cars are falling by the wayside. While the electric sports cars are often better performing than their internal combustion counterparts, they lack the sounds that enthusiasts have come to love about vehicles with traditional combustion engines. Lotus is trying and remedy the lack of sound for its pure electric Evija hypercar by teaming up with a renowned music producer named Patrick Patrikios.

Patrikios has worked with a number of famous stars and has won awards for his production talents. The producer was responsible for the Evija hypercar's sounds, and Lotus wanted to create a soundscape that was easily recognizable and providing a distinctly Lotus sound. Patrikios sat down with the development team to discuss how the vehicle would sound. The team decided they wanted something that was intrinsically connected to Lotus that can be used as a blueprint for the sound of future electric cars.

Patrikios wanted to use something that was famous as a Lotus as a starting point for the audio track, and the team settled on the Type 49. The Type 49 is one of the most successful Lotus racing cars of all time, with a V8 sound that is iconic. First, the team started with a recording of a Type 49 fed into a computer for digital manipulation. During the recording's digital manipulation, the team discovered that when the Type 49 recording was slowed down, it created a similar frequency as the natural driving sound produced by the electric powertrain in the Evija.

The audio replay speed was adjusted, and digital filters were applied to create the soundscape for the hypercar. A primary task for Patrikios was to craft what the Evija sounds like on the outside as it accelerates. Lotus says the vehicle is capable of accelerating from a standstill to 186 mph in under nine seconds. Other sounds created for the electric vehicle include chimes and tones for everything from what the blinker sounds like to seatbelt warning chimes. Lotus plans to build only 12 Evija hypercars.