RE: Lotus jobs at risk

[DonkeyApple]

otolith said:

Bahaha said 6000 units, though obviously it depends on the margins.

I suspect he was reckoning on larger margins from the higher price models?

Also, is that unit number for break even or sustainable growth? Given the cost today of bringing a new model onstream those two figures are going to poles apart.

[Captain Muppet]

otolith said:

Captain Muppet said:

otolith said:

...Fibreglass bodywork should enable them to change the styling at lower cost than pressed steel, so why has the Elise only had two bodies?...

Yep, just the S1, S2 and the S2 facelift, and the S1 Sport Elise/Exige, 340R, VX220, S2 Exige, Europa, 211 and the V6 Exige. Just those two bodies.

Several of those aren't Elises, and even the Exiges aren't much more than an Elise with a body kit. S2 facelift - ooh, I see it now, it's actually an S2 Elise, but looks entirely different because they moved the indicators. I almost didn't recognise it.

I was responding to the number of re-bodies. The S2 facelift Elise only carries over the doors and the sills.
If you don't think the bodies have been styled differently enough then your subjective opinion is as valid as anyone else's. Porsche don't have particularly radical styling changes and it seems to work for them. TVR used cheap GRP tooling for radical new shapes all the time. I've no idea which is best.

[otolith]

Porsche seem to be able to get away with same again styling, but they aren't trying to flog essentially the same underpinnings. It just seems to me that a current Elise looks essentially the same as a 2002 model, and that Lotus could be attracting more of the people who have to have the latest thing by restyling more often - something that not having massively expensive pressed steel tooling should give them an advantage in.

[otolith]

Also seems likely to me that a decade of cfd development might net them a better compromise between lift and drag.

[Captain Muppet]

otolith said:

Porsche seem to be able to get away with same again styling, but they aren't trying to flog essentially the same underpinnings. It just seems to me that a current Elise looks essentially the same as a 2002 model, and that Lotus could be attracting more of the people who have to have the latest thing by restyling more often - something that not having massively expensive pressed steel tooling should give them an advantage in.

The 911 is still a flat six mounted in the back of a steel monocoque with two tiny seats in the back.

The current Boxster doesn't look radically different to the 1996 model, and underneath it's not radically different either.

You are right though, cheaper body tooling does give you more options for radical styling. I'm sure I read a Colin Chapman quote about changing body styles frequently.

ETA: it was a Chapman approved Tony Rudd memo. Item 5 "Mould tool life and body process techniques to be exploited to ensure exclusivity is maintained by trend setting styling and structural changes every 4000 units".

link to memo

Edited by Captain Muppet on Monday 29th September 16:45