Will Lotus cars make it to 2015?
Discussion
Will Lotus cars make it to 2015? I’m thinking it’s going to be a struggle as in the last 12 months in the UK they only sold 410 cars. That’s not enough to bring in the required profit to spend on the development and manufacturing of the planned six new models.
Proton say they are only giving £100 million of capital to Lotus, so Lotus need to either make some profit or borrow the rest. Bear in mind they’re spending money like water on random things like GP2 sponsorship and the hiring of rapper Swizz Beatz. Who follows or cares for these activities?
McLaren has spent £250 million developing one model so Lotus needs cash to develop the proposed six cars, they say they need £850 million.
So my view is that they aren’t making much money, are spending more than they are earning and can only borrow so much between now and 2015. Therefore Lotus will go bankrupt before 2015 and we won’t see any of the new cars they’ve been shouting about. Anyone know something I don’t? Will Lotus be Chinese owned by 2015?
Zav
Proton say they are only giving £100 million of capital to Lotus, so Lotus need to either make some profit or borrow the rest. Bear in mind they’re spending money like water on random things like GP2 sponsorship and the hiring of rapper Swizz Beatz. Who follows or cares for these activities?
McLaren has spent £250 million developing one model so Lotus needs cash to develop the proposed six cars, they say they need £850 million.
So my view is that they aren’t making much money, are spending more than they are earning and can only borrow so much between now and 2015. Therefore Lotus will go bankrupt before 2015 and we won’t see any of the new cars they’ve been shouting about. Anyone know something I don’t? Will Lotus be Chinese owned by 2015?
Zav
You’re all quite right that as Brits we should remain positive about Lotus’ future. The Press speak from Proton will always read positively as it’s a press release. So when the Lotus Press Manager is told, ‘our interiors are still poorly built, sales are below plan for 2011 and we can’t get any more power out of the Toyota engine.
The Press Release will say, ‘Lotus have improved the perceived cabin quality and the new model year has an extra 10bhp. Sales are above 2010.
Every car company and his dog has baked ‘massive growth in China’ in to their plans for the next few years, we’ll see which ones pull it off.
As you’ve all said there is a lot of good happening at Lotus and it’s wrong to try and shoot then down. However they make it so easy with their scattergun approach to marketing. They sponsor the Renault F1 team but their road cars have Toyota engines. Why didn’t they buy the Toyota F1 team at a knocked down price like Mercedes did with Honda. Add to that the licensing of the name to another F1 team and you can’t help but laugh.
Perhaps all is good at Lotus except for their marketing team!
The Press Release will say, ‘Lotus have improved the perceived cabin quality and the new model year has an extra 10bhp. Sales are above 2010.
Every car company and his dog has baked ‘massive growth in China’ in to their plans for the next few years, we’ll see which ones pull it off.
As you’ve all said there is a lot of good happening at Lotus and it’s wrong to try and shoot then down. However they make it so easy with their scattergun approach to marketing. They sponsor the Renault F1 team but their road cars have Toyota engines. Why didn’t they buy the Toyota F1 team at a knocked down price like Mercedes did with Honda. Add to that the licensing of the name to another F1 team and you can’t help but laugh.
Perhaps all is good at Lotus except for their marketing team!
You all touch on some valid points, stuff I never thought about. Ultimately they need to find customers. They have two types of customer to keep happy:
1. Rich dude who will buy £100,000k car (with nice profit margins) and who will buy one every 1-3 years even in a recession.
2. The current Lotus customer – the enthusiast. The enthusiast is tight (massive generalisation I know) and will spend less and keep his car for longer.
So as Lotus are currently not in the position to sell £100,000 cars they have to keep their bread and butter happy – the enthusiast, the only people buying in to the brand. From a business point of view Lotus would rather sell to an overweight banker in the Far East than to a British enthusiast.
So the challenge for Lotus over the next 18 months (to when new models start arriving) is to keep selling cars to the above mention two target customers:
- Entice rich dudes to buy ‘enthusiast cars’.
- Keep the enthusiasts happy and entice them to spend more.
They just need to make sure they don't end up in 'no mans land' - which is kind of where they are now with their cars.
1. Rich dude who will buy £100,000k car (with nice profit margins) and who will buy one every 1-3 years even in a recession.
2. The current Lotus customer – the enthusiast. The enthusiast is tight (massive generalisation I know) and will spend less and keep his car for longer.
So as Lotus are currently not in the position to sell £100,000 cars they have to keep their bread and butter happy – the enthusiast, the only people buying in to the brand. From a business point of view Lotus would rather sell to an overweight banker in the Far East than to a British enthusiast.
So the challenge for Lotus over the next 18 months (to when new models start arriving) is to keep selling cars to the above mention two target customers:
- Entice rich dudes to buy ‘enthusiast cars’.
- Keep the enthusiasts happy and entice them to spend more.
They just need to make sure they don't end up in 'no mans land' - which is kind of where they are now with their cars.
Well Lotus have finally lost the all their marbles, with the sponsorship of an LMP2 team: http://www.autosport.com/news/report.php/id/97239/
Really, who the hell watches or cares about LMP2. It's a category for rich guys to have a play, not a marketing platform for a car manufacturer.
Really, who the hell watches or cares about LMP2. It's a category for rich guys to have a play, not a marketing platform for a car manufacturer.
Bit off topic but as I started this thread I think I'm aloud. Dug out sales figures by month for Lotus since Bahar started. 2010 average 50 cars a month, 2011 average 20 a month, full chart is here: http://nitroaddiction.co.uk/ So in one year he crashed the sales by 60%. Nice one.
Captain Muppet said:
dkturbo - you should do climate analysis, all sorts of unrelated data you could imagine links between. You know that CO2 emissions have been rising at the same rate as tampon sales? It's true. Bloody women.
Yes you could overlay all the data relating to all the comments in this thread. Thing is the red trendline would be exactly the same. Large car companies overcome these issues and problems every week in an effort to hit their market share, volume and profit objectives, no excuses. Lotus didn't, which culminated in sales dropping.DK Turbo
Edited by dkturbo on Sunday 24th June 18:49
Auto Express say VW might buy Lotus. Nitro Addiction says Renault may buy Lotus, which makes sense for the following reasons, full article here: http://nitroaddiction.co.uk/renault-to-buy-lotus/
1. Renault is already heavily linked to Lotus through their Formula 1 activities. The Lotus sponsored F1 team is still part owned by Renault and has Renault engines powering the cars. Through this there are many co-sponsored events. It is most evident at motor shows whereby both Renault and Lotus stands will have a Lotus F1 car on display.
2. Renault have previously made an attempt at buying a prestigious brand, in 2007 they studied buying Jaguar Land Rover from Ford. Renault currently have the Dacia and Samsung brands but both are at the low end of the market.
3. Renault have no presence in the lucrative sports car market, even though they supply four Formula 1 teams with engines. From a marketing point of view this does not transcend in to showroom sales, a sports car would bridge this gap. Currently Renault are trying to achieve this with the potential resurrection of the Alpine brand. The Lotus name would having more presence and a higher change of sales success.
DK Turbo
1. Renault is already heavily linked to Lotus through their Formula 1 activities. The Lotus sponsored F1 team is still part owned by Renault and has Renault engines powering the cars. Through this there are many co-sponsored events. It is most evident at motor shows whereby both Renault and Lotus stands will have a Lotus F1 car on display.
2. Renault have previously made an attempt at buying a prestigious brand, in 2007 they studied buying Jaguar Land Rover from Ford. Renault currently have the Dacia and Samsung brands but both are at the low end of the market.
3. Renault have no presence in the lucrative sports car market, even though they supply four Formula 1 teams with engines. From a marketing point of view this does not transcend in to showroom sales, a sports car would bridge this gap. Currently Renault are trying to achieve this with the potential resurrection of the Alpine brand. The Lotus name would having more presence and a higher change of sales success.
DK Turbo
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