3rd round of Redundancies at Lotus 😞

Lotus Cars job losses as 'volatile market' and US tariffs blamed

Up to 270 jobs are to go due to "evolving market conditions including the US tariffs", Lotus says.

www.bbc.co.uk

 

[RoryBellows]

This must be in a very specific geographic part of the US for you.

I'm on the west coast and track used car trading values and discounts on new cars and this is simply not the case in most of the US. There have been documented cases of used cars (essentially new) trading for mid $80k (see BAT - Bring a trailer) and new cars getting $5k off MSRP with not a lot of effort (I got more on my recent purchase).

The reality is these cars are rare, but there's no correlation between exclusivity and value in the case of Lotus cars. BTW, all previous models played out identically. And before anyone says what about elises and exiges? Sure, but you had to wait 20 years to get your money back. That's not appreciation, that's called "time value of money" aka inflation. I'm sure my emir will trade for what I bought it for in 20+ years as well.

Exactly. Its a Lotus, not a special run Ferrari. It will depreciate, bottom out and then ride with inflation. Manuals will get a little bump but otherwise spec doesn't seem to mater much. Buy them to drive them. If you can find your spec used go for it and reap the savings.

 

[ShootingSight]

Enthusiasts like sports cars, and are willing to put up with poor quality - hence Emira which is fun to drive, and has a joke of an infotainment system. However there is little profit in that market. Porsche and Corvette are the only ones that are likely profitable here. The money to be made in cars is in making SUVs for the masses, and they demand quality - hence Ferrari, Lamborghini, Maserati, Porsche all making SUVs and using their sports car reputation as a marketing tool.

So, except for the current market events around tariffs, and the downturn of demand for EVs, buying Lotus was actually a brilliant move for Geeley, allowing them to get the sports car reputation, utilizing their EV technology, and getting into an untapped SUV opportunity. As a bonus, if Lotus know-how in chassis design and styling gave them a boost, it might have been an SUV worth looking at. Who knows, they might even have invested some engineering into the electrical quality issues Lotus traditionally has.

 

[Big H]

To be fair, Lotus has been staggeringly unlucky since the Emira launch: COVID pandemic, Ukraine war, US and European tariffs on Chinese EVs, and now the tariff war. They just can't catch a break.

Unfortunately they compounded this bad luck with a couple of major strategic blunders and terrible execution.

Strategic blunders: aiming for 100% EV at least five years too early, trying to reposition as a high-end luxury brand too quickly with Evija, Emeya and Eletre, plus a failed attempt to take over sales from the dealer network in the UK

Execution blunders: long list but includes not getting on top of quality control, going to market with software that wasn't ready, and having terrible customer communication and customer care

I can vouch for the terrible customer care, in fact i’d say it’s now non existent