Fortunes of Lotus on the up!
More cars being sold, an improvement in Profit Before Tax and more said to be on the way
Under the banner of ‘Lotus delivers radical financial turnaround’, the important numbers from Hethel are as follows: Profit Before Tax has improved from a loss of £41.2m in the Financial Year (FY) 2015/2016 to £11.2m in 2016/17, with an improvement in the Profit Before Tax of £10m for the second half of 16/17 compared to the first six months. The Earnings Before Interest, Tax, Depreciation and Amortization (EBITDA) of Lotus was £2m for 2016/17, which looks very good against a £16.3m EBITDA loss for the previous financial year. This has been thanks to a 57 per cent increase in European sales and six-fold rise in the US; there are now 215 Lotus dealers globally too, a rise from 138 in 2014.
So it looks like the new model blitz has been a success! Clearly there is still progress to be made but there are a lot of positive signs here. Jean-Marc Gales said of the news: "We have emerged from the last three years a fitter and more effective business, where we are fast in bringing new sports cars to market and agile in adapting to new opportunities. We are now in a perfect position to develop the next generation of Lotus sports cars". What will those be? Well we know an Evora Roadster is on the way, plus there’s the SUV as well, and a new Elise is rumoured for around 2020 too. What else would you like to see?
Exciting times ahead for Lotus by the sounds of it then; we can’t wait to see what comes next!
Great news on the improved fortunes though. Some will criticise Lotus for the regular "new" model introductions, but right now they're delivering quality as well as quantity and the entire range seems to be absolutely brilliant. The Evora roadster looks like another beautiful piece of kit, how did I miss that story?!
Profitability is also difficult to judge as you need to understand the reason for change. Is it due to higher selling price and volume? Efficiency gains? FX? Or just that they have cut R&D and so amortisation has reduced (which is not necessarily a good thing).
In summary: accounting information very difficult to interpret without much more detail.
Add in the increasing rush towards eMobility and Lotus will need to really pull something from the bag to survive imo.
In terms of overall demand for 'Lotus like cars' - well they never did sell to the people who buy a car like they buy a washing machine. The market for MX-5s, Boxters and Audi TTs hasn't exactly gone away, has it?
Good news to hear, but almost certainly a sign of another impending global crash - Lotus have the remarkable ability to time their recoveries just as the economy tanks.
The SUV has been on the board for some time, to be built in Asia - it looks very much like they know what to do with the brand, which I'll take as a good sign.
Sure the brand would move on with new models but the Brand could reinforced by reminding us where it all began.
Add in the increasing rush towards eMobility and Lotus will need to really pull something from the bag to survive imo.
In terms of overall demand for 'Lotus like cars' - well they never did sell to the people who buy a car like they buy a washing machine. The market for MX-5s, Boxters and Audi TTs hasn't exactly gone away, has it?
Good news to hear, but almost certainly a sign of another impending global crash - Lotus have the remarkable ability to time their recoveries just as the economy tanks.
The SUV has been on the board for some time, to be built in Asia - it looks very much like they know what to do with the brand, which I'll take as a good sign.
Very few Porks are bought for driving dynamics either.
Lightweight development should play to Lotus strengths, if they can exploit that soon.
Max, can you hurry up and make EVs interesting!
Add in the increasing rush towards eMobility and Lotus will need to really pull something from the bag to survive imo.
I have a Tesla on order from our daily driver as it ticks all the right boxes. I have a Elise for the weekends because it ticks all the right boxes.....but very different boxes.
My future lotus must have an ICE. If it doesn't then I won't buy one. I feel completely the opposite about my daily driver.
I'm no historian, but I thought he was the same as the old man Ferrari - the road cars are there to bring in the funds to go racing.
Gassing Station | General Gassing | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff