Does a hill climb count if a car doesn’t even make it off the base of the hill?
That’s what happened to a Lotus Evija X during Thursday’s Supercar Run at the 2024 Goodwood Festival of Speed. Mere moments after starting its run up the legendary hill, the monstrously powerful EV’s day came to an end after it crashed into a haybale barrier.
Neither Goodwood nor Lotus haven’t shared footage of the failed hill climb, though the run was live-streamed. A YouTube user named LittleT posted a video of the crash shortly after it happened.
The clip, which runs just 47 seconds, shows the incident from both angles. In the first, the Evija X gets the green light to start its run, performs a smoky burnout, and immediately crashes into the right hay bale barrier, demolishing its front end in the process. In the second, which offers a view unobstructed by smoke, you can see the car launching forward and immediately veering violently to the right. The video also shows that the driver, whose name was not listed on the official entry list, appeared to escape the crash unharmed.
Cars crash into the hay bales at Goodwood every year but that doesn’t make the accident any less ideal for Lotus. It’s unclear what exactly happened to the Evija X, but, in the moments after the crash, one of Goodwood’s commentators was quick to offer up a theory placing the blame on the car and not its driver.
“It’s a computer software issue this one,” the commentator said during the livestream. “It isn’t driver error. Something has happened with the power going to the individual wheels that has spat him off there.”
What makes Thursday’s run so disappointing is that Lotus probably had high hopes for the Evija X, which was making its U.K. debut on Thursday. We’re just three months removed from the EV, which features quad-motor powertrain that produces 2,000 hp, running the third fastest lap in Nürburgring history. On top of that, if the $2.3 million EV is even salvageable repair costs figure to be steep.
