Tuesday 8th March 2011

PH Interview: Lotus CEO Dany Bahar

PH comp winners grab a fascinating few minutes with Lotus boss at Geneva

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Lotus boss Dany Bahar at Geneva - minutes before meeting the PH competition winners

PistonHeads: A few months ago you surprised everyone by showing five cars at once. Why make such a bold move and launch all the cars in one hit?

Dany Bahar: We wanted to show the world, the media, potential customers and the industry where Lotus is heading in the coming decade, and that's somewhere far different from where it was. We thought that by just putting there an Esprit, or one Elise, or one city car would not capture the whole concept of the rebirth of Lotus.

We wanted to show customers the whole product line-up, to show that this was not just us going crazy. There will always be products for our current customers but we will extend the product range into what the company used to do in the '70s and '80s.

Lotus motorsport on display

Before Paris, when we showed the cars, Lotus was not in a good position with suppliers. The volumes were too low, the financing was not in place and we never had the chance to work with companies such as Bosch, Magnetti Marelli or Getrag. Now, the suppliers are actually chasing us to be partners.

PH: Are you lining up more surprises over the next five years, or are you concerned that maybe you've given it all away?

DB: There is much more to come. The products that will come out in 2013, like the Esprit, will not change dramatically from what we showed, but the cars that are further down the road might undergo some changes, so there might be some surprises there. And we should not forget the current line-up (Elise, Exige, Evora). There will be exciting derivatives of those three cars coming up in the next three years.

PH: Is there a common platform strategy for the new cars?

Front-engined Eterne shares much...

DB:I don't think that a small company like us would be able to finance these five cars if there wasn't a commonality to the platforms. This is the biggest misunderstanding in the public's view. We are not developing five cars. We are developing two cars, and all the five cars are just different derivatives. We will achieve more than 50 per cent of commonality across all the platforms, more than any other sports car has in fact achieved. And why are we able to do that? Because the cars have started from scratch. We have done everything with the objective to share all the components throughout those five cars, and that in engineering terms is really just developing two cars. And I think even companies like Lotus should be able to do that.

...with mid-engined Esprit concept

PH: The two cars you refer to, are they a front-engined configuration (Elite and Eterne) and a mid-engined one?

DB: Yes.

PH: What are the key technical elements of that platform-sharing strategy?

DB: The key is the main basic architecture. It is not just two platforms (front-engined and mid-engined), it is only one basic car, modified to give an engine in the front or in the rear. Other than that, the base elements of the sharing strategy, the engine, gearbox, suspension, braking, HVAC (Heating, Ventilating, and Air Conditioning), electronics, - in other words all the big elements - are shared throughout the cars.

PH: Will the cars use aluminium, for which Lotus is famous, or composites materials?

Mansory tweaked Evora also at Geneva

DB: It depends on which car you talk about. We will develop the composite we have today, but as we go up the range we will have an aluminium body, but with carbon fibre panels as well. Basically, the higher you go up the price range, the more exotic materials we will incorporate.

PH: The world is moving towards lightweight, frugal cars with innovative technology - Lotus's traditional heartland. Are you concerned that you're moving away by going into bigger, heavier cars with larger engines?

DB: Not at all. I think we should differentiate a mass-market product from the sports car market's offerings. You might see a V12 become a V8, but that is still a big engine compared with mass-market cars.

The reason for buying a sports car is passion, emotion, a love for driving. It's not about how much emissions a Ferrari or a McLaren will actually deliver. If you buy a sports car purely because of economical or environmental reasons then something is wrong.

Car shows off 'bespoke' aspirations

So, it is a sort of contradiction, but what we try to do with our strategy is keep the core DNA of lotus - low weight. That means being lighter than any other competitor, and I think we have shown already with the current products that we produce high-performing engines with low emissions. The Evora is under 200g/km CO2, or 220g/km with the Evora S, whereas our competitors are at 270-280g/km.

So we have two benchmarks to achieve, which is to be lighter than any other and to be more economical than the others, but a sports car is still a sports car. You want to hear the sound, you want to feel the engine, you want to feel the driving. For those things we are the benchmark anyway in the sports car industry; we just have to be better on the more emotional side. Which we are not good at.

PH: Will you be moving more into the luxury sector, and how do you see the brand moving away from pure lightness, and how will you balance the inevitable weight compromises in the search for greater refinement?

DB: Again I think there is a misunderstanding. What does lightness mean? If you think Lotus is just about the Elise, which unfortunately is the only car that we've produced in the past 15 years, therefore people think that is it. But what about the past 45 years? There were many cars, like Esprit, Eclat, Elite that were all 1400kg or more. There was a V8 Esprit. I admit that these were not very successful commercially, but that doesn't mean that the strategy was wrong. I think what we want to do is keep the light weight approach, but always be 100-200kg lighter than any other competitor. This is what we mean by lightweight.

If you go back 10 years, most cars were made out of steel. Then somebody came up with an aluminium chassis and it was easy to be lighter. Today most sports cars are aluminium anyway, so you can't say 'I'm going to be 300kg lighter than him'. Especially with the current cost pressure you have to develop the cars. So I think we just have to be more clever, by applying more smart engineering, and do it maybe more simply, as we did in the past.

Epic Jim Clark quote on Lotus stand

Our cars will never be high-tech products; we will always try to keep things light and simple, but we can simply not survive, with just the Elise. The Evora, which we made before I joined the company, already showed the ambition of the company to move outside its enthusiasts-only comfort zone, which is fun, but doesn't deliver you enough volumes to sustain the company. I don't think there is anything to say we cannot bring the next Esprit to market. The Esprit was already a bigger car than the Elise 15 years ago, 20 years ago, and although commercially maybe it was not the best success, it was definitely in terms of image the car that best promoted the Lotus brand outside of niche circles. I think that deserves to be a premium car, deserves to be fighting with Porsches and Ferraris and, of course, if you are fighting them you have to have some of the luxury features that type of customer expects. It's a different type of person to the Elise customer.

PH: Which competitor would like to gain customers from for each of your new cars?

DB: There isn't in particular one competitor; we have segments that we would like to aim for, but our general approach is always to meet the performance of the best in class of the segment, but at a price that's 20-30 per cent lower. That's the general rule of thumb in everything we do. Best in class for performance, and then we have to be able to deliver it at a lower cost.

(The questions in this interview were posed by PHer Mike - aka BarnatosGhost - and his mate Dan, who won the PH/SEAT competition to help us report the Geneva show. Good effort chaps! Ed.)

[HeMightBeBanned]

So the Esprit is due in 2013, which is pretty exciting. However, what's there to keep the sales volumes ticking over in the meantime? The 190bhp Elise and Exige can't be sold in a lot of markets as a result of emissions regs, and the Evora (whilst dynamically excellent) isn't hitting the perceived quality/price benchmarks and isn't selling.

A V6 Exige has been rumoured. What else?

[John Mansfield]

I wish PH had asked questions on how Dany intends to dovetail his Motorsport division with these plans. Obviously, he has already improved the image of the company in vendors eyes. This I assume is largely due to the Motorsport side of the company.
IMO he should add an educational side to this. He is dealing with top end technology. Students would love to be invloved with this.
John Mansfield

[wab172uk]

Good interview. Good answers.

I really look forward to Lotus producing all these cars. I want a new Elan !!!!

No doubt the Doom Police will be along shortly to say Lotus will go bust, or that every car should be stripped out.

Edited by wab172uk on Tuesday 8th March 13:09

[Countdown]

Was I the only one hoping that was a misspelling and Lotus had appointed Dani Behr ?

[Mannginger]

Actually this was a good interview and as stated some good answers which went some way to addressing points of concern around stretching the company too thin (5 platforms = 2 for example).

A bit of spin in my view around the weight issue but if they can pull it off and get the buyers in with good quality then it's not the end of the world in my view

[RobM77]

Great interview I was only wondering how Lotus' plans were coming along yesterday actually, and here's my answer!

[BSC]

The important question who will supply the engines has not been asked. :-(

This issue should have been decided at the end of January. After the management lead buy out has gone tits up and the necessary money for the planned line-up is not secured AFAIK suppliers are not chasing Lotus as T Bahar pointed out. Nobody will sell parts or invest in manpower to alter a product when the payment is questionable.

Just my 2p of course.

[rob.e]

Dany Bahar said:

There were many cars, like Esprit, Eclat, Elite that were all 1400kg or more.

Ok, the lardiest of the Esprit v8's were approaching 1400kg but these were the exceptions in my view. A GT3 esprit was around 200kg lighter and from memory the Eclat was only around 1000kg.

Its good that Mr Bahar wants to be lighter than the competition, and I really REALLY want him to succeed but I don't think he's right about his assessment of the earlier cars weights.

Maybe in today's safety obsessed environment its not possible to be as light as cars were in the past, in which case fair play - do the best you can and beat the competition but please don't say the early cars were heavy - i just don't think this is right.

[otolith]

rob.e said:

Its good that Mr Bahar wants to be lighter than the competition

I imagine he would be perfectly happy to be perceived to be lighter than the competition, whether he is or not - Lotus is associated with lightness in the same way that VW is associated with reliability, it should be possible to sell cars off the back of that brand association for years before anyone notices that it isn't true any more.

[peter450]

BSC said:

The important question who will supply the engines has not been asked. :-(

This issue should have been decided at the end of January. After the management lead buy out has gone tits up and the necessary money for the planned line-up is not secured AFAIK suppliers are not chasing Lotus as T Bahar pointed out. Nobody will sell parts or invest in manpower to alter a product when the payment is questionable.

Just my 2p of course.

Engines will likely be Lexus if sourced, unless they do there own, which has also been hinted at

rob.e said:

Ok, the lardiest of the Esprit v8's were approaching 1400kg but these were the exceptions in my view. A GT3 esprit was around 200kg lighter and from memory the Eclat was only around 1000kg.

Its good that Mr Bahar wants to be lighter than the competition, and I really REALLY want him to succeed but I don't think he's right about his assessment of the earlier cars weights.

Maybe in today's safety obsessed environment its not possible to be as light as cars were in the past, in which case fair play - do the best you can and beat the competition but please don't say the early cars were heavy - i just don't think this is right.

I think he meant, they were a similar weight to other rival cars, Eclat/Excel similar, maybe bit lighter than 924/944

Esprit similar, probably a bit lighter, than 328/911

Most of those cars were in the 1000 to 1400 kg range, they all got heavier towards the end of there lifecycles, i'm sure the Esprit started around 1100 and ended up around 1350

[Fuelbrother DC]

peter450 said:

I think he meant, they were a similar weight to other rival cars, Eclat/Excel similar, maybe bit lighter than 924/944

Esprit similar, probably a bit lighter, than 328/911

Most of those cars were in the 1000 to 1400 kg range, they all got heavier towards the end of there lifecycles, i'm sure the Esprit started around 1100 and ended up around 1350

While having driven both 911 (993 C2) and an S4 Esprit I can say that the Esprit is percieved as the lighter, more agile car. Same applies to the Evora, btw. in comparison to a Cayman - albeit the later is quite a refined car, I must say.

Without talking in numbers: Lotus cars always have been (a 'bit'?) lighter, and more agile then the rest. Which IS the core value of the brand. Tener Bahar seems to understand that, although it is harder to reach these days with comfort & safety equipment on board. The Elise and formerly Elan/Elite were exceptions - in every way. They distilled the essence of Lotus to the max. - being on the edge of usability and reliability. And sometimes beyond.

[Oddball RS]

Not the voice of doom, i just want to see something more than a purchased F1 team and ideas and hot air. The Evora is not a bad car, but seems to be a square peg now? who's going to buy one now?, and to be honest at the moment there is nothing else.

[BSC]

peter450 said:

I think he meant, they were a similar weight to other rival cars, Eclat/Excel similar, maybe bit lighter than 924/944

Esprit similar, probably a bit lighter, than 328/911

Most of those cars were in the 1000 to 1400 kg range, they all got heavier towards the end of there lifecycles, i'm sure the Esprit started around 1100 and ended up around 1350

Engines won't be Lexus, T Bahar tried to get BMW. But BMW has no V6 ond Mini Cooper Inline Four for Elises. And BMW wants to be paid for engines.

Bahar spoke to Magna in Austria re. the production of Eterne and Elite but Magna requires much more funds than Bahar is able wo offer so the negotiations were interrupted.

CaymanS with 320 bhp is about 90 kgs lighter than Evora S.

[Martin 480 Turbo]

Nice interview.

All that hot air should ring a bell with former TVR owners or employees.

Let's see Bahar do it.

[infradig]

Slightly off topic but does anyone know how many Evora's have found homes? I spend half my life on the road in and around London and the M25/M1 so am more likely than most to see interesting cars around,and I've seen....ONE,ever! I've seen more 599GTO's this week. In the last couple of years spotted hundreds of Elises,plenty of Exiges even some Europas but one solitary white Evora about a year ago,is anyone buying them,or are they all oop north?

[rob.e]

infradig said:

Slightly off topic but does anyone know how many Evora's have found homes? I spend half my life on the road in and around London and the M25/M1 so am more likely than most to see interesting cars around,and I've seen....ONE,ever! I've seen more 599GTO's this week. In the last couple of years spotted hundreds of Elises,plenty of Exiges even some Europas but one solitary white Evora about a year ago,is anyone buying them,or are they all oop north?

Well I do 30k miles a year and I've only ever seen ONE on the road.

[kambites]

BSC said:

CaymanS with 320 bhp is about 90 kgs lighter than Evora S.

But it also has two less seats (sort of). I think the Evora's design is hugely compromised by the need to have space for those two useless rear seats, much like the 911 I suppose (I think the Evora is lighter than a Carrera2?). The Elan, if it ever happens, should be a fairer comparison to the Cayman.

Edited by kambites on Tuesday 8th March 18:20

[BSC]

Today 17:00 CET Mr Bahar and Magna have agreed to build the Elite and Eterne in Austria an Austrian source told me. Funds allowing.

Edited by BSC on Tuesday 8th March 18:37

[10 Pence Short]

I may be being unkind, but Dany Bahar doesn't seem to come across as anything other than a dull corporate monotone of platitudes. I don't get any hint of old school enthusiasm for the brand at one end, or 'Ron Speak' sense of stoich purpose of Ron Dennis at the other. It's all just a bit 'flat'.

[jackal]

10 Pence Short said:

I may be being unkind, but Dany Bahar doesn't seem to come across as anything other than a dull corporate monotone of platitudes. I don't get any hint of old school enthusiasm for the brand at one end, or 'Ron Speak' sense of stoich purpose of Ron Dennis at the other. It's all just a bit 'flat'.

He's a marketing man though isn't he and that's exactly what he needs to be IMO.

We don't want some old english eccentric fruitbat getting misty eyed and rambling on about picking turnips and tuning into Alan Partridge for the breakfast show. We need someone who knows the ballgame backwards and is going to ace the new Brand and sell units.