RE: Lotus SUV design patents leak

[Toltec]

Lotus Excession

[Herbs]

SWoll said:

Herbs said:

SWoll said:

They'd surely struggle to sell enough of these to justify the huge development costs? Unless of course it's just a rebodied Korean SUV of some sort with a few interior and suspension tweaks?

Too much of a leap from their existing lineup also I'd suggest, and their reputation doesn't lend itself to big sales of a daily use car either.

I'd suggest they have actually nailed it. The market appears to be shifting to coupe suv's. BMW now do the X1,X2,X3,X4,X5 and X6, Audi and Mercedes are doing the same.

Rather than arrive too late to the SUV market which is to established (Bentley & Aston Martin i'm looking at you) they've gone straight to the next big thing.

I think the standard hatch and saloon has pretty much had it's day as the biggest segment.

But they don't have the money, scale, reputation or engineering background to do it properly unlike the companies you mention above?

They have a history of collaboration though I guess it will be the same again. They won't be chasing big numbers but it will certainly be a larger segment than the Elise or 2 eleven market is.

[Rawwr]

Look at Porsche before the Cayenne. They were basically working out of a shed residing in a sausage factory car park.

[kambites]

Ikobo said:

If only the new owners at Lotus owned another car company with experience in making high quality cars of this type.

I'd imaging it will draw heavily from Volvo's experience, possibly even sharing a platform?

[SWoll]

Ikobo said:

SWoll said:

They'd surely struggle to sell enough of these to justify the huge development costs? Unless of course it's just a rebodied Korean SUV of some sort with a few interior and suspension tweaks?

Too much of a leap from their existing lineup also I'd suggest, and their reputation doesn't lend itself to big sales of a daily use car either.

If only the new owners at Lotus owned another car company with experience in making high quality cars of this type.

So a rebodied XC60 or 90?

[Herbs]

SWoll said:

Ikobo said:

SWoll said:

They'd surely struggle to sell enough of these to justify the huge development costs? Unless of course it's just a rebodied Korean SUV of some sort with a few interior and suspension tweaks?

Too much of a leap from their existing lineup also I'd suggest, and their reputation doesn't lend itself to big sales of a daily use car either.

If only the new owners at Lotus owned another car company with experience in making high quality cars of this type.

So a rebodied XC60 or 90?

My money would be on XC60 - i think the 90 would be too big but would expect Lotus to heavily modify the suspension as that is their DNA.

[kambites]

SWoll said:

So a rebodied XC60 or 90?

Most likely an XC60 I'd imagine.

A VVA based product is possible but it'd take a lot longer to bring to market and as you say, they probably don't really have the experience to make it work. I'm guessing the final product will be very much in the vein of the Porsche Macan.

Edited by kambites on Friday 27th October 15:12

[Ikobo]

SWoll said:

So a rebodied XC60 or 90?

I'm thinking the new, smaller XC40 that comes out next year?

[wildcat45]

Lotus Euryalus.

[TartanPaint]

Lotus Emulate
Lotus Eyesore
Lotus Eulogy
Lotus Eveready (hybrid)
Lotus Ebrious (non-hybrid)
Lotus Enlarger
Lotus Egomaniacal
Lotus Ejaculate



Meanwhile, preparation continues at Lotus Financial Solutions as a new shipment arrives in time for the SUV launch:

[Rawwr]

kambites said:

Most likely an XC60 I'd imagine.

A VVA based product is possible but it'd take a lot longer to bring to market and as you say, they probably don't really have the experience to make it work. I'm guessing the final product will be very much in the vein of the Porsche Macan.

Edited by kambites on Friday 27th October 15:12

An Lotus-fettled XC60 is no bad thing at all.

[swisstoni]

So what exactly is unique here that requires patenting?

[hondansx]

Must admit, i didn't expect much but I think it looks good.

[CanoeSniffer]

Really, really, properly pissed off about this. Surely purist manufacturers should see that this sort of cashing in on the bandwagon trend hurts their brand image? I'm sure it will sell like hot cakes (they all do for some reason) relative to their sports cars but as a petrolhead it will make me die a little inside to see the lotus badge on yet another 'premium SUV'.

The return of TVR can't come soon enough.

[swisstoni]

Purist manufacturers have to generate money somehow, so they can make more purist sports cars.
Porsche bit the bullet years ago, yet people still fawn over every monthly limited edition of the sports cars.

[Porsche911R]

I hate SUV's with a passion.

what stupid fad of a car design good at nothing !

[matrignano]

Lotus Excrement, cause you know, it's ste!

[Tuna]

swisstoni said:

So what exactly is unique here that requires patenting?

China's patent system works differently to ours - there you patent a design embodiment (I think) to stop people from copying your product.

[Frimley111R]

CanoeSniffer said:

Really, really, properly pissed off about this. Surely purist manufacturers should see that this sort of cashing in on the bandwagon trend hurts their brand image?

I don't believe it does. Do you think less of Porsche and their awesome sports cars because they make a 4x4? If you look, they are going from strength to strength. IMO it only hurts if they drop sports cars for SUVs, but none have.

[Tuna]

kambites said:

SWoll said:

So a rebodied XC60 or 90?

Most likely an XC60 I'd imagine.

Given the time scales and the fact they're setting up manufacturing with another company in Asia for it, I doubt it's a rebodied anything. It's not aiming to be launched until 2021 - the current XC60 will be getting a little bit 'previous generation' which is not a good basis for a launch model in a new segment.

If they're serious about making an impact, it's got to do something interesting with the packaging, and genuinely reduce weight. VVA may be the key - it would be nice to see it in use in that form.