Evora GTE 'Proves Lotus Is A £100k Brand'

Special edition's success boosts boss's confidence in 5 year plan

Proof Lotus can sell cars at £100k

PH bumped into Dany Bahar at Lotus HQ in Hethel yesterday, and we couldn't help sharing our mutual excitement about the new Evora GTE special edition parked in the lobby.

The car, a new variation of which will be on show at Frankfurt next week, was originally conceived to mark Lotus's campaign at Le Mans this year. The firm had planned to swiftly build a handful of the racing car-inspired machines for the Chinese market (it's easier because their regulators haven't caught up with Euro/US-style pedestrian safety regs and such-like), but orders for nearly 120 cars 'flooded in'. And all before Lotus actually opened the doors of its first Chinese dealer.

Feedback in Europe has been strong too, and there's now a plan to build a version of the GTE for us - they're working on a more 'pedestrian friendly' design as we speak. Numbers and prices are yet to be confirmed, but with 444hp, a hydraulically-actuated manual transmission and a bespoke bodyshell with carbon panels, you can expect it to cost at least double the price of an Evora S - so it could be upwards of £120k.

Dany: It's only one market so far, but...

So what does Dany make of this (apparently) unexpected success?

"I've often been challenged in internal discussions by the question 'what makes you think Lotus can sell a car for over £100k?'," he told us.

"Admittedly it's in only one market so far, but this is the perfect example of how we can go a lot further than £100k - and that's just with existing product, and before any of the new cars arrive.

"Many sports car owners and enthusiasts would love to drive a Lotus, but couldn't find anything in the line-up - they're the people who spend money on the 'Scuderias' and 'R' versions," he told us.

Racing programme inspired the GTE

"Our brand enjoys a lot of sympathy, after all buyers in this sector are not necessarily the youngest, and they remember Lotus in the old days. The GTE proves we don't have to build our brand up from scratch."

If a European-ised version of the GTE goes as well as it has in China, he may be on to something. Either way, it's great to see Lotus doing something 'here and now', both with the GTE and a raft of significant improvements that have just been announced for the MY2012 Evora, more on which anon...

As part of our visit, we also got a tour of the new trim-shop which has just been installed at the Hethel factory. It's a bit odd to realise that Lotus makes all the trim components for the Evora in-house (apart from the Recaro seats), simply because no external supplier will quote reasonable prices for the limited volumes required. (One of the reasons there are crates of Evora side-windows at the factory, marked 'shipped from Peru'.)

When the promised new models come on stream (all five will be production-engineered to share a single production line, in spite of reported chatter about building cars abroad), the plan is to follow modern practise and buy-in components ready-trimmed - potentially leaving the new trim-shop to develop into a luxury/bespoke customisation centre.

It's all intriguing stuff, and who's to say Dany isn't right to take his inspiration from Kevin Costner and Field of Dreams? 'If you build them, buyers will come...' Especially if they're already queuing for the Evora GTE.