Recent content by Nick in Sydney

They also pulled out because Lotus took 2+ years to deliver on some of those deposits!

Current UK government EV policy is that "small volume car maker" means manufacturing less than 2,500 cars a year. Perhaps this will change given events, but at the moment Lotus Cars doesn't qualify because Emira volumes are well above this. On the other hand, if the US market is no longer...

But the US is a LHD market and the UK is RHD?

No, the reciprocal tariff doesn't stack on top of the 25% auto tariff. Here's the official policy statement from the White House: Some goods will not be subject to the Reciprocal Tariff. These include: (1) articles subject to 50 USC 1702(b); (2) steel/aluminum articles and autos/auto parts...

I think that's just a special exception for Canada and Mexico because of the CUSMA agreement. AFAIK, it does not apply to cars made in Europe, UK, China, Korea, etc. But who knows? Trump could easily change his mind if he wakes up in a good mood tomorrow.

Don't think that's the way the tariff works. If the car is imported, it is taxed 25%, regardless of whether or not it contains some US-sourced parts. The parts only matter for cars built in the USA.

I struggle to see how Lotus can continue selling the Emira in the United States. The 25% tariff can only be absorbed by three potential parties: Lotus, the car dealers, or the American consumer. In the investor calls, Lotus has indicated that margins on the Emira are already unacceptably...

Eagle, you are destroying a thread that is supposed to be about discussing the impact of possible tariffs on the Lotus Emira. Please just stop.

This video about McLaren paint issues is interesting from an Emira POV. Having visited Hethel, I've always wondered whether poor storage of the Teijin panels could be the cause of the blistering paint.

Can we talk about cars again?

I'm pretty sure they're also composite, but they are supplied by a different company, not Teijin. The Teijing panels have been suffering the issues with osmosis.

This is consistent with what Lotus has said since the early days of Emira. They've always indicated that the V6 would be around for just a few years and that the AMG engine would bridge them to an electric sports car. For this reason I've always assumed that models like the R would be based on...

Supercar has become so overused as a term. I don't think even an entry-level Ferrari or Lambo is a "supercar". It's just a great sports car. Surely to be a genuine supercar you have to be talking about something extraordinary like an F40, 918 or the P1. The term has been misused so often...

That's just not true. Lotus themselves have only ever set a target of 5,000 Emiras per year and the Hethel factory is only designed to build that many. They hit that number last year, but I suspect they won't be able to sustain it in 2025.

Most of the EV makers had a nice pump after Trump hinted at softer tariffs. BTW, Geely is clearly running out of patience, having just parachuted in two senior Polestar execs to try and turn around terrible Chinese sales.