Wednesday 21st January 2015

Lotus sales up over 50 per cent

1,500 cars reached in the past nine months with an "exciting reveal" promised for Geneva

---

It's always nice to report something positive from Hethel. Following the excellent Elise S Cup comes the news that Lotus global sales are up 54 per cent in the first nine months of the 2014/15 financial year compared to 2013/14.

Mid-life refresh time?

Of course selling 1,565 cars compared to 1,014 is a tiny drop in the car selling ocean but it's a significant step in the right direction for Lotus. By region the biggest gains have been in France (143 per cent), China (130 per cent) and Japan (125 per cent). In Britain Lotus has sold 88 per cent more cars.

These figures will have been aided by the introduction of more Lotus dealerships, the total now standing at 163, or 25 more than nine months ago. There are 50 more scheduled before the end of this year.

There's more good news too. We're promised an "exciting reveal" in Geneva, a car that will adhere to Lotus's "core pillars of lightness, performance and driving purity." That's all Lotus has revealed thus far, leaving us free to speculate - although our previous conversation with newish boss Jean-Marc Gales suggests that it will be a revised Evora.

Lotus is still some way off Gales' stated aim of selling 3,000 cars a year, at which he says the company would be both profitable and sustainable. But it's certainly moving in the right direction.

 

[Fetchez la vache]

artiele said:

profitable and sustainable

c'mon Lotus!

[billzeebub]

Great news. More or less the only manufacturer whose new vehicles appeal to me

[Amateurish]

1 car per dealer per month? Doesn't sound like great results to me.

[MG511]

Interesting, and I really do want Lotus to survive and thrive, but those UK figures do look rather positive compared to the SMMT registrations data recently published (link at bottom of page here http://www.smmt.co.uk/2015/01/uk-new-car-registrat...

SMMT figures (which are of course for registrations rather than sales ) show that Lotus registered 235 cars in the UK in 2014 compared to 256 in 2013, a drop of 8.2%. In December 2014 they only registered 5 cars, compared to 63 in December 2013 (that looks a very successful month in Lotus terms).

[RobM77]

Great news, especially if you view it alongside sports car sales in general, which are pitifully small. Harry Metcalfe did an editorial a while ago in Evo stating figures that showed more Range Rover Evoques were sold in one year in Europe than all sports cars put together! Against this climate, Lotus are doing very well; no doubt the superb new Exige V6 is contributing too, it's probably the best daily usable road car I've ever driven.

I'm looking forward to the grammatically inaccurate event Evora as mentioned, or maybe a 2-Eleven successor?

[Claudia Skies]

Please, please, please, please, please - a car from Lotus which customers will flock to buy!

I really want to see Lotus regain some credibility. I guess it's likely to have Toyota bits at the back - which is fine. What's needed is some eye-catching sportscar styling to match the excellent dynamics.

[RobM77]

Claudia Skies said:

What's needed is some eye-catching sportscar styling to match the excellent dynamics.

They're not doing too badly - just look at that Exige at the top of the page

[JDMDrifter]

Bring back a modern day elan i say, steal the ,MX5's long reign!

[gashead1105]

I'll hopefully be contributing to the positive statistics in the next few days.

[Sampaio]

A substantially revised Evora would be excellent. That car is intrinsically very good but people don't buy it based on design and interior quality - I believe the facelift/revision will sort this out and make the Evora a real proposition for someone who already wanted one but wasn't quite convinced!

[C7 JFW]

Just like Jaguar, I genuinely want Lotus to succeed and keep making cars.

[Sampaio]

JDMDrifter said:

Bring back a modern day elan i say, steal the ,MX5's long reign!

What would you change in an Elise to make it an MX-5 rivaling car??

[RobM77]

Sampaio said:

A substantially revised Evora would be excellent. That car is intrinsically very good but people don't buy it based on design and interior quality - I believe the facelift/revision will sort this out and make the Evora a real proposition for someone who already wanted one but wasn't quite convinced!

On the subject of the Evora's styling, I often wonder if the whole 2+2 idea was to stop critics labelling it as yet another Elise spin off like the ill fated Europa (did they sell 5 in the end?!). In reality, a two seater would be lighter, better balanced and in answer to your comments above, be far easier to style nicely. The Cayman proves that people buy two seaters.

[Tickle]

Brilliant news

[DanielSan]

Sampaio said:

What would you change in an Elise to make it an MX-5 rivaling car??

Price and looks, personally I think the latest Elise looks awful, nowhere near as pretty as the S1 or S2.

[danp]

Amateurish said:

1 car per dealer per month? Doesn't sound like great results to me.

Quite, hope a Lotus salesperson gets a good base salary as there can't be much commission in it.

[Sampaio]

DanielSan said:

Sampaio said:

What would you change in an Elise to make it an MX-5 rivaling car??

Price and looks, personally I think the latest Elise looks awful, nowhere near as pretty as the S1 or S2.

A softer-looking roadster then? That might be interesting, the Elan was pretty round and... pretty. Hell, even the current Evora is all round and cutesy. I wonder if they could come up with something like that.

But price, here's the big problem, I don't think Lotus has much to cut out of the Elise to make it cheaper!

[Sampaio]

RobM77 said:

Sampaio said:

A substantially revised Evora would be excellent. That car is intrinsically very good but people don't buy it based on design and interior quality - I believe the facelift/revision will sort this out and make the Evora a real proposition for someone who already wanted one but wasn't quite convinced!

On the subject of the Evora's styling, I often wonder if the whole 2+2 idea was to stop critics labelling it as yet another Elise spin off like the ill fated Europa (did they sell 5 in the end?!). In reality, a two seater would be lighter, better balanced and in answer to your comments above, be far easier to style nicely. The Cayman proves that people buy two seaters.

Honestly I see the Evora as the car I'd buy only after having a kid - I could fit a child-seat in the back and still have a sports car after dropping him at school or whatever. My only other option for a 2+2 sports car would be a dreary TT.

[danp]

Sampaio said:

Honestly I see the Evora as the car I'd buy only after having a kid - I could fit a child-seat in the back and still have a sports car after dropping him at school or whatever. My only other option for a 2+2 sports car would be a dreary TT.

GT86? +supercharger/turbo if required.

[MCBrowncoat]

MG511 said:

Interesting, and I really do want Lotus to survive and thrive, but those UK figures do look rather positive compared to the SMMT registrations data recently published (link at bottom of page here http://www.smmt.co.uk/2015/01/uk-new-car-registrat...

SMMT figures (which are of course for registrations rather than sales ) show that Lotus registered 235 cars in the UK in 2014 compared to 256 in 2013, a drop of 8.2%. In December 2014 they only registered 5 cars, compared to 63 in December 2013 (that looks a very successful month in Lotus terms).

Seem like strange results to me, maybe there's a phasing or lag issue...it also says Maserati registered 106 this December compared to only 16 last December. As an analyst I would question those results