RE: 'Evija' name confirmed for Lotus EV hypercar

[C.MW]

I wish them the best of luck but this... Ohh.

Lotus is great at what they've been doing and I honestly believe they are the only sportscar maker on earth (Nissan excluded) with the expertise to come up with a true rival to the 911. For them to achieve growth (read: survival) while preserving their brand at this stage I believe is to replace the Evora with a new one worthy of taking the fight to the Porsche. An electric car out of nowhere seems way further down their actual priority list.

[Tuna]

Lotus sets out their stall with a million pound electric hyper car, showing off their industry leading experience...

..and everyone goes "why can't they just make a car like the MX5?"

sigh

[gigglebug]

Tuna said:

Lotus sets out their stall with a million pound electric hyper car, showing off their industry leading experience...

..and everyone goes "why can't they just make a car like the MX5?"

sigh

Just goes to show where the perceived market to tap into now lies. If this can help fund future ventures at the other end of the scale, and be something stunning at the same time, it won't be all for nothing.

[ArmouredBiscuit]

Also a skin softening cream in Lithuania......

[TartanPaint]

gigglebug said:

That was what I didn't want to hear to be honest. Can they compete at that level? They are brilliant at what they do, producing cars at a certain level price wise, but at what point will it become psychological hard to pay a certain amount for a Lotus? I take that there will be models introduced between the cars they have now and this? It's a massive jump north from just over 100K straight to 2 million. Good luck to em and all and I hope that they can produce something worthy of being 2 million, and more importantly that people buy it. It should be pretty epic if they do given their track record of producing very good drivers cars.

In the context of UK Lotus model range, no, it makes no sense. As a halo product for Geely globally, it makes perfect sense.

[TartanPaint]

sgtBerbatov said:

Just call it Espirit and be done with it.

They need to keep the Esprit name for the new Esprit.

[otolith]

gigglebug said:

Europa1 said:

I seem to recall £2m being mentioned.

That was what I didn't want to hear to be honest. Can they compete at that level? They are brilliant at what they do, producing cars at a certain level price wise, but at what point will it become psychological hard to pay a certain amount for a Lotus? I take that there will be models introduced between the cars they have now and this? It's a massive jump north from just over 100K straight to 2 million. Good luck to em and all and I hope that they can produce something worthy of being 2 million, and more importantly that people buy it. It should be pretty epic if they do given their track record of producing very good drivers cars.

If you don't make expensive cars, you will never be perceived as a maker of expensive cars. The point of making and selling a 2m hypercar is to reposition the perception of what a Lotus can cost. An identical 120k car with a McLaren badge would be seen as better value than one with a Lotus badge because people see McLaren as a manufacturer of 750k Sennas, not 40k Elises.

[gigglebug]

TartanPaint said:

In the context of UK Lotus model range, no, it makes no sense. As a halo product for Geely globally, it makes perfect sense.

Yeah, I wasn't thinking about it like that to honest. Devil's advocate; Wouldn't a car that competed, and was immensely successful, in say the 488, 720S and Aventador or even the Huracan and 570 bracket serve as greater exposure? More potential custom, more YouTube vids/reviews etc and it could still have been a halo product. Or do Geely already have that?

[otolith]

gigglebug said:

Yeah, I wasn't thinking about it like that to honest. Devil's advocate; Wouldn't a car that competed, and was immensely successful, in say the 488, 720S and Aventador or even the Huracan and 570 bracket serve as greater exposure? More potential custom, more YouTube vids/reviews etc and it could still have been a halo product. Or do Geely already have that?

My feeling is that the function of this car is to enable them to credibly sell cars in that bracket.

[Tuna]

gigglebug said:

Just goes to show where the perceived market to tap into now lies. If this can help fund future ventures at the other end of the scale, and be something stunning at the same time, it won't be all for nothing.

This has come up every time Lotus have produced a new car - for at least the last two decades. Everyone (wrongly) assumes that an affordable mass produced car is going to transform Lotus.

Unfortunately, Lotus aren't Mazda (or Porsche for that matter), and cannot 'just' design a mythical cheap sports car and sell it in thousands. They don't have the dealership network, they don't have the customers, they don't have the manufacturing facilities, their technologies are not designed for mass production and they don't have the integration that allows mass market companies produce cars at low costs.

Lotus are going to be niche specialists for the foreseeable future, just as they have been for years. What they need to be is very good niche specialists - and cars like this are all about that.

[gigglebug]

Tuna said:

This has come up every time Lotus have produced a new car - for at least the last two decades. Everyone (wrongly) assumes that an affordable mass produced car is going to transform Lotus.

Unfortunately, Lotus aren't Mazda (or Porsche for that matter), and cannot 'just' design a mythical cheap sports car and sell it in thousands. They don't have the dealership network, they don't have the customers, they don't have the manufacturing facilities, their technologies are not designed for mass production and they don't have the integration that allows mass market companies produce cars at low costs.

Lotus are going to be niche specialists for the foreseeable future, just as they have been for years. What they need to be is very good niche specialists - and cars like this are all about that.

I wasn't coming from the cheap as chips sports car angle and haven't mentioned it personally to be fair, I was rather eluding to the more accessible (relatively) supercar section where a lot of the action takes place. It would still represent a jump in level for lotus to be producing cars at around the 200K bracket. But as Otolith has eluded to, maybe that is the whole point long term.

Edited by gigglebug on Thursday 4th July 12:11

[kambites]

otolith said:

gigglebug said:

Yeah, I wasn't thinking about it like that to honest. Devil's advocate; Wouldn't a car that competed, and was immensely successful, in say the 488, 720S and Aventador or even the Huracan and 570 bracket serve as greater exposure? More potential custom, more YouTube vids/reviews etc and it could still have been a halo product. Or do Geely already have that?

My feeling is that the function of this car is to enable them to credibly sell cars in that bracket.

I think they (probably rightly) assume that if you want to sell a car for £200k, you need a car on the market which costs ten times that, even if no-one ever buys it.

[ntiz]

Aren’t we all ignoring that they could well be the first with an EV supercar on the market? Could possibly even beat Tesla to that claim.

That’s quite a statement and big way of repositioning yourself as a global brand.

I’m not a fan of idea of a 2 million EV supercar but you have to admit it will be pretty unique.

[gigglebug]

kambites said:

otolith said:

gigglebug said:

Yeah, I wasn't thinking about it like that to honest. Devil's advocate; Wouldn't a car that competed, and was immensely successful, in say the 488, 720S and Aventador or even the Huracan and 570 bracket serve as greater exposure? More potential custom, more YouTube vids/reviews etc and it could still have been a halo product. Or do Geely already have that?

My feeling is that the function of this car is to enable them to credibly sell cars in that bracket.

I think they (probably rightly) assume that if you want to sell a car for £200k, you need a car on the market which costs ten times that, even if no-one ever buys it.

Do Lotus not already have enough credibility when it comes to producing extremely competent cars for drivers that moving to the next level could represent a challenge? Maybe I am wrongly assuming that they are already well received around the world for what they do and up until till this point it has more likely been a lack of funds preventing a more expensive model being produced as oppose to a lack of belief in the brands value?

[Cold]

There are plenty of orders in for this. It was announced a year or two ago at Shanghai - which is realistically the location of the Evija's marketplace.


Lotus has always offered a good value sportscar, but they've never made an inexpensive one.

[Europa1]

sgtBerbatov said:

Cold said:

sgtBerbatov said:

Just call it Espirit and be done with it.

Isn't that too much like Esprit?

Why? Do you think Colin Chapman will sue them?

SgtBerbatov, re-read your original post, more carefully.

[otolith]

gigglebug said:

Do Lotus not already have enough credibility when it comes to producing extremely competent cars for drivers that moving to the next level could represent a challenge? Maybe I am wrongly assuming that they are already well received around the world for what they do and up until till this point it has more likely been a lack of funds preventing a more expensive model being produced as oppose to a lack of belief in the brands value?

They're pushing low 100k with some of their existing models, but I think people still perceive them as the company that should be selling 30k cars. I think they're trying to be seen as McLaren/Ferrari territory and not something cheaper than a Porsche.

[Vee12V]

While I might like the car, the name is absolutely terrible.

[scottygib553]

The name and branding are akin to that of a graphics card launch.

[HighwayStar]

gigglebug said:

kambites said:

otolith said:

gigglebug said:

Yeah, I wasn't thinking about it like that to honest. Devil's advocate; Wouldn't a car that competed, and was immensely successful, in say the 488, 720S and Aventador or even the Huracan and 570 bracket serve as greater exposure? More potential custom, more YouTube vids/reviews etc and it could still have been a halo product. Or do Geely already have that?

My feeling is that the function of this car is to enable them to credibly sell cars in that bracket.

I think they (probably rightly) assume that if you want to sell a car for £200k, you need a car on the market which costs ten times that, even if no-one ever buys it.

Do Lotus not already have enough credibility when it comes to producing extremely competent cars for drivers that moving to the next level could represent a challenge? Maybe I am wrongly assuming that they are already well received around the world for what they do and up until till this point it has more likely been a lack of funds preventing a more expensive model being produced as oppose to a lack of belief in the brands value?

At this point they don't have enough credibility, they have to start building it. Getting into the minds of potential customers that they have the engineering capability to produce something of the quality of Ferrari, Lamborghini and McLaren.
Look at Alpine... the reviews were excellent, high praise from all motoring journalist. On PH... all a lot could say was how much!! £50k for a Renault, no one will buy it, people will just buy a Porsche blah blah.
This is what a £170-200K Lotus would be up against.
The Evija will showcase what Lotus is capable of when they have some real money to work with. Create the buzz, the interest and then show them what is to follow. Like Aston with the Valkyrie then the models coming in below it. The question is, what have Lotus got planned for after the Evija.....