I saw his review a couple days ago and knew the owner had to be from the forum. Did he say anything about the manual shift feel with the short shifter? I don't think he mentions it in the review.
Deposits were made based on a deal previously agreed upon by dealers and buyers. Dealers are altering the deal last minute and preying on people committed to the second biggest personal purchase of their life that should be a happy thing. If the dealers are having such a hard time with just...
The leather grain is normal. That variation is a characteristic of full grain leather (topmost skin) that has very little correction, paint, and plastics applied to the surface. It means natural differences between hides and wrinkles from natural wear and handling show more prominently. It's...
Doubt this will be an actual vehicle at least for 4+ years, if at all. Japanese automakers have been really bad with paying EV lip service with a bunch of concepts but not much actually being delivered in capability innovation or vehicle types (sports cars). All of them have been promising...
Review from Jason Cammisa and Derek Tam-Scott on Carmudgeon.
The conclusion was that they really like it ("one of the few modern cars I'd genuinely be enthusiastic to own"). Their criticism sounds harsh, but I think it's just quite nuanced with high standards due to the extensive...
I've been following the Emira production to see how Type 135 production would eventually be... and to say the least, I wish it were to be built in China. The Eletre quality seems outstanding so far. But then US-China tariffs so lose-lose 🤷♂️
Kyle and Alyssa are one of the best EV reviewers out there. They've reviewed pretty much every production EV out there besides the Rimac Nevera, so they're very familiar with the variety of EV specs off the top of their head. There's a lot of nuance in their review of EVs that no one else...
Lotus' investor presentation for their SPAC shows where their priorities lie. They view the US BEV market as pretty small, especially when you compare it to the size of their entire auto market and how much effort it'd take to commercialize in the US.
There's some truth in the sales focus on China. For the Lotus Technology investor presentation, they said their EV sales will be focused on the China > EU > UK markets and then US, due to expected EV market growth. Emira sales may be following that pattern to grow awareness in the markets.
Are these Chinese i4 Emiras also first editions? If so, I wonder if that means non-Chinese cars, first editions or not, could theoretically also change colors after July production. We could be seeing the updated colors pretty soon.
Lotus' main focus in those scenarios may be focused on the fast charging. You could drive to the location, do your twisty drive, charge and eat, then drive back.
The Eletre does 10-80% battery in 20 minutes with a 350kW charger, and it can charge up to 420kW if chargers allow it. The...
Matt Windle has recently expressed interest in moving from composite body panels to pressed metals, likely for cost and higher throughput reasons. Hopefully this doesn't compromise future styling, since the composites can have much more complex shapes and sharper angles.
I believe the Eletre...
Type 135 will likely have a 2025 reveal and was originally targeted for 2026 launch. Recent interviews seem to indicate it'll slip into 2027 launch, which could even mean 2028 for the US.
Yep, and maybe it'll look even better than the Emira. Late 2021 when there was still hype around the...
Personally, it's hard to justify paying a premium for Lotus over Porsche for a less premium ownership experience and the same level of performance. I can bear the growing pains to support small and new brand, like maintenance/manufacturing hiccups (assuming I have a nearby dealer)...
Agreed. Normally I wouldn't expect a battery in the Emira. But the investor presentation said Lotus is aiming for an EV Emira, so maybe a battery hybrid Emira is more possibly in the cards.
Note that the electric turbo only applies to the new hybrid AMG 63 versions of the M139 engine. It almost certainly won't be in the Emira version of the engine, unless they make it hybrid power in the future.
Interesting that the NA stores/dealers aren't increasing nearly as much as other regions in the next 2 years. China is a given, but even UK and EU are growing a lot more, even though Lotus has said the US is an important region. Maybe because NA BEV growth isn't as much as other regions. It's...
Those are pretty big claims that require a significant burden of proof. Where's the source for insider statements that the car was released early intentionally bypassing full validations? Any source on journalists compromising their professional integrity to get paid off by Lotus?
It's possible that Lotus wasn't counting on Britishvolt getting off the ground to make Type 135 feasible. It'd be a huge assumption to make on a new company that requires a ton of capital. Matt Windle recently said Type 135 is in 2024-2025, so Lotus may have already excluded Britishvolt due to...
Would this red Emira in Miami be a dealer car then? Seems a bit odd for a meeting of hyper cars, likely with exclusive members/friends, to include a dealer car.
https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTRbojv9k/
Welcome to the forums! TheSmokingTire has said that the Lotus Evora is the modern car most like the past NSX in being an engaging and linear mid engined car. So hopefully that bodes well for liking the Emira.
I think people harp on the current gen NSX too much. It has insane presence in...
The sealing isn't as bad as I thought it would be, especially for the standard Lotus came from before and considering an almost entirely new factory and assembly line. I was expecting the seal to be misaligned, dangling, or completely missing. Tesla still has those in Model S cars. I think this...
Manufacturing something, especially something as complex and precise as an engine, is SOOOO much harder vs just buying it off the shelf and tuning it. That's likely where the difference lies in Lotus tuning with their limited budgets vs developing a new engine costing over a billion USD.
I've...
As a note just in case, Wireless Android Auto uses wifi and not Bluetooth to transfer data. So just because it's wireless doesn't mean it's Bluetooth and is subject to potential losses. I haven't been able to get a straight answer for what sort of compression occurs with wireless AA.
And I...
There are a lot of driver anecdotes with great credentials. Compared to the journalist feedback, the test drives here have emphasized driver engagement vs the competition and none have really mentioned the downsides of understeer and at-the-limit behavior. I'm wondering if the journalist...
There's a strong chance Type 135's batteries will be different from Lotus Evolution platform (i.e. "lifestyle") vehicles. Current information from Lotus LEVA white papers and production rumors are saying Type 135 is looking towards 21700 type cylindrical cells and the Eletre will have prismatic...
That was sources saying that when Lotus Technology was on the market for private investors, Nio was one of the investors. What the actual connection between the two companies will be is unknown, if there is any.
Oh and for Britishvolt, with how far out their manufacturing date has been pushed...
For the understeer, I think Lotus may have still been too heavy handed and could've leaned more neutral while still being safe. First off, the Emira rear tires are SUPER wide. The Emira has 245/35/20 and 295/30/20 front and rear, and the Cayman GTS 4.0 in comparison has 235/35/20 and 265/35/20...
It's not a given that a brand positioning as sporty will release a sporty halo to attract customers. Fisker only has an SUV shown. Lucid likes to say they're super sporty and have Lotus engineers, but they have basically no intention for a sports car. Alfa Romeo likely won't make a sporty EV...
Yeah, looking at all the production car photos, the paint seems super high quality. Lots of gloss on most colors, seemingly from a thick clear coat, and the reflections have very little distortion, especially during motion, to indicate no orange peel or differing thicknesses. I wonder if they do...
From the pictures it seems like there's a ton of excitement around the Emira but not many people around the Eletre. Was this how it actually was or was it just the when the pictures were taken?
I recall a conversation recently about Lotus comms and marketing. If Lotus had some article series like this going into details like this about craftsmanship, attention to detail, and engineering about every part of their cars, I'd be over the moon. It's great at bringing legitimacy to what's...
I wonder if the weaker British pound could impact the price lower than we think... but it's likely inflation would impact the price higher by a greater magnitude.
Interesting that there are driving impressions for the Evija! To the best of my knowledge, no one has publicly stated that they've driven the production version or even a very late prototype. Not sure if there's been a press event yet.