Lotus Eletre Will Be the First Chinese-Built EV Sold in Canada

There's a delicious irony in the fact that the first Chinese-built electric vehicle sold in Canada won't be a $22,000 city car, but a $119,900 British hyper-SUV.

Lotus CEO Feng Qingfeng confirmed this week that the Eletre will be the first Chinese-manufactured model available at Canadian dealerships, with deliveries expected in the third quarter of 2026.

The Eletre is built in Wuhan, China, but wears the Lotus badge — a British brand founded in 1948 and owned by Geely since 2017. It's this British identity that allows it to navigate the political waters more easily than its purely Chinese cousins.

The numbers are staggering: 905 horsepower, 0 to 100 km/h in 2.9 seconds, 600 km of range. It's faster than a Lamborghini Urus and half the price of a Porsche Cayenne Turbo GT.

Lotus already has six Canadian dealerships and plans to add more. The tariff reduction to 6.1% made the pricing viable — the model would have cost over $240,000 under the previous 100% tariff.

For the Canadian market, this sends a fascinating signal. The first wave of Chinese EVs won't be a flood of cheap cars. It will start at the top.

The affordable models — BYD's $22,000 Seagull, Chery's $30,000 Omoda E5 — are still months away from clearing regulatory hurdles. Lotus, with its established dealer network and British heritage, simply got there first.