Lotus: Dead weight lifted or dead man walking?
We investigate whether Lotus is back on track in the post-Bahar era
FoS sculpture was well received
The list of recent positives is long, starting with an excellent showing at Goodwood. Lotus was the featured marque and put in a mighty effort to impress the punters. The sculpture was lauded as one of the best in recent memory and the display of golden oldie race machinery up the hill impressive. The wonderfully bizarre door-stop Type 58 racer from 1968 stuck in the mind.
Then the company this week opened the doors on its flagship Regent St merchandising store in London. A £333 car coat might not be high on your shopping list, but the kit is mainly stylish and the shop well appointed. Let's not forget that Ferrari makes around a quarter of its profit from its stores.
The racing is going great guns, meanwhile. It might be mostly in name only, but when the Lotus F1 team is now regularly making the podium and currently sits third in the championship ahead of Ferrari, it's got to have a positive effect on the global perception of the company.
Lotus Engineering, a mostly separate entity to Lotus Cars, is also still deep-thinking its way to solutions to benefit both Lotus and its worldwide customers, most recently reaching the track testing phase for the Evora plug-in hybrid.
This is the car that's promised to accelerate faster to 60mph than the much-praised supercharged S but record just 55g/km of CO2 (around 120mpg).
So all this must be having a terrific effect on sales, right? Er no. Up to the end of June this year, Lotus had sold just 82 cars in the UK. That's down from 218 the year before, a fall of over 200 per cent. Even Saab sold more than that, and it's been defunct since December.
So what's the problem? We put that question to Lotus, who then sent it all the way to new owners DRB-Hicom in Malaysia, who declined to comment.
Given that Lotus would usually answer this themselves, it demonstrates just how much DRB-Hicom want to take control of the day-to-day stuff. Understandable when all the publicity outlay for expensive hobbies like racing hasn't translated into sales, and in fact seems to have done the opposite.
Let's hope the Evora convertible, expected to be revealed in a month or so, can go some way to halting the decline.
Anyway, how is that "an Elan"? The (original) Elan was probably roughly on a par with the current Exige S, price-wise.
"We have 1162 orders to fill [189 Elise, 156 Elise S, 350 Exige S, 182 Evora and 250 Evora GTE models] - which is incredible."
So? Are they producing those cars he was taking about?
I am amazed and dismayed by the sales figure of 82
Unfortunately, unless DRB-Hicom push though with Bahar's strategy, I think lotus have no chance. Porsche have the volume sports car market sewn up with higher quality products. Ferrari and Mclaren have moved the super car game on. All lotus have is a 16 year old low volume sports car platform, and a the Evora, that no one seems to like that much.
Virtually zero sales and money coming in, a big bill to swallow to get a decent product to market, and no guarantee regaining that investment when the product is on the market. If it was me, I'd cut my losses. Sincerely hope that DRB-Hicom don't...
It will survive IMO, but the forensic examination and constant attention being taken by the media must be making the owners very uncomfortable. I doubt they are used the media attention and I bet they don't like it.
There are loss making car companies everywhere. Plenty of them obfuscate and fudge the state of their finances. But Lotus seems to exist under a spotlight these days.
What will happen?
The value of the brand ( especially given its F1 success ) is still considerable. That should give the owners comfort.
The convertible Evora can't come too soon. I'm betting it will be a success in overseas markets and so gradually ( hopefully ) Lotus will pick itself up.
But the management need to get their act together and show strong leadership. If not, then the value of the brand will peak and fade and their moment will have been lost.
As for the Evora plug in hybrid - I actually think it is an excellent idea. Lotus Engineering need to showcase their expertise and cars like the plug in Evora do just that. It's much more interesting than a Tesla !
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