I’ve heard of maybe 5 people, earlier in the year and for builds in month 3/4 and beyond. No one since Goodwood. Have you heard of anyone more recently?
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A warning for those in the UK thinking of delaying until March 23
- Thread starter 1500 GT
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Yes and no. Under normal circumstances, yes, but these aren't normal circumstances. There's a massive amount of change that's taken place in and at Lotus, combined with no cars to produce and sell while trying to get their new one in production. And as if that's not enough, they're trying to handle all that in the midst of an unprecedented global crisis for the modern world. Have they handled everything perfectly? No, certainly not. I don't think it's because they don't care. To me it's because their situation seems to be changing by the week, which is something you yourself have referred to. It looks like they keep thinking they're going to get parts they need, then find out at the last minute they aren't, for a whole variety of reasons they don't have control over.
It's obvious by now that they just don't want to talk about it because it's not positive or comfortable for them to do so. Would you want to give a weekly update of this roller coaster? "We're getting parts in this week and we'll start producing cars next week!" Next week... "Sorry, we didn't get the parts in we were told, so we won't be producing any cars this week, however we'll let you know by Friday." Friday... "We've now been told we'll get the parts next week that we were told last week we'd get this week." etc. How many times would you like to say that before it gets unbelievably embarrassing and ridiculous? They're obviously choosing to stay silent about this mess until they can start producing cars. Whether that's been good or bad from our perspective, that's the way it is.
The one thing they know for sure that we all want, is our cars, and that seems to be what they're putting all their focus on. Under any other circumstances, that would be a production-led company, especially if there were no other issues at play. Considering there's nothing BUT issues at play, virtually all of which are out of their control, there's nothing normal about this; especially for them.
Now having said all that, if I were in charge of comms, I'd be creating an interactive social system online; a lot like gaming companies do (at least the big ones) for their games and gamers, so players can interact with people from the company, and get inside views, conversations, streaming events, etc. That kind of thing is a great resource for immediate and current feedback from the player base, as well as creating a feeling of community, which is something Lotus sorely lacks and needs right now. There are a lot of things Lotus could do in this area, but they clearly weren't even close to being ready for what's happened, and so far, there's no indication they're going to address much of anything else until production starts. Under the current circumstances, I can somewhat understand that at a basic level, but if they want to be a mainstream player they're going to have to get out of their 'garage' so to speak, and start thinking and acting like a mainstream player.
I don't think they either have the right people in charge of this area, or the person in charge isn't familiar with the media/social world they need to be in, to figure out who to hire to bring them into this realm. There are literally millions of people on YouTube who've created their own channels/brand/vlogs and participate in them on a weekly basis. There's a lot of talent out there that could help Lotus create this kind of presence, but I'm not sure Geoff realizes this. He doesn't strike me as a YouTube person. Does he spend any time on YouTube looking at any of this stuff? There's tons of ideas he could be inspired by if he took the time to look.
So... while they're trying to get a beautiful sports car; their last ICE sports car into production, they need a dynamic and active social/media group, which they either don't have, or it hasn't made its presence known yet. By now, I suspect they don't have one. Get this message to them Tom, whoever you have contact with, and hopefully it will get to Geoff and he'll start to realize this is something they CAN do right now, and NEED to do. There's no need to wait until cars start to be delivered.
with your contacts, I am imagining you are not asking these questions to regular CS...... The answers seem to be CS and BS at the same time.To be fair, they do have a production scheduling system and a customer management system that seem to be connected to each other.
I know they can re-run scheduling fairly quickly, as they were talking in January about needing to move from doing it monthly to doing it every 1-2 weeks because of the pace of changes in updates from suppliers.
I strongly suspect the resistance to changes is to reduce the to and fro with their suppliers, at a difficult time when they are probably focused on keeping those suppliers on track. If you've told them you want 100 Homelinks in Sept, 150 in Oct and 90 in Nov then changing that every week is confusing and disruptive.
I asked today if I could delete Homelink to bring forward my build from Oct to Sep. The answer was no, that would actually push my delivery sometime into 2023, but they couldn't say which month.
I queried why they didn't want to leave something out and get a car delivered earlier and enable Lotus to get paid sooner. The response was "any changes result in delivery being put back into 2023". So switching privacy glass, changing caliper colour, omitting tracker all kick you into some undefined point next year.
Despite what some emails said about specifications for Nov build not being locked until mid Aug, I've been told today if you are in that batch and make any change to your spec then you will also get bumped into 2023.
Lotus once again demonstrating that they are a production-focused company and not a customer-focused one
A weekly update wouldn't make sense for exactly those reasons. But a monthly one would, and has been mentioned many times. Including a bit more detail on production topics ("we've just heard our type approval application has got to stage 4 and should get decided in the next month which keeps us on plan" and "we've received the first two months of customer wheels from Rimstock - look how nice they are") as well as a few insights from the development team on things like the HCI design, working with the new leather supplier, meeting global emissions standards. Stuff that would give some insights, keep people engaged and build some goodwill. An infographic on where in the world the different Emira parts come from - illustrating how reliant they are on supply chains.
Instead we've had two emails, last week and mid June, saying "we're delayed, it's parts supplies of course, bear with us, sorry, more news to come soon" with very little explanation or anything much to give a view of the level of confidence in the timeframes being given. Both have been accompanied by Matt saying they've just started building the first customer Emiras - so was that in June or is that now?
More comms and social media engagement would help too. Many of us have fed that back to senior Lotus folks over the last six months. Apart from the press reviews on YouTube (which have been useful) there have been a few posts by people who've had the press cars for a day or two, often supported by Lotus PR/social folks - like the rtwenty3 posts last week. These are more aimed at building awareness with future customers than engaging with deposit holders.
Here's what I'd do in light of the delays: take the press cars and arrange to give each of the first 100-150 UK customers a visit by the Lotus CC and PR teams with a car in their colour, at their house or workplace, and give them a test drive. Apologise for the delays and say "here's a car you can drive all day today to say sorry - drive it as much as you like". Film the arrivals, drives and debriefs. Create some stories like "what's your favourite local road to use for this test drive" and "what car are you coming out of to go into the Emira". Publish edits of the feedback, one a week for the next 4-6 weeks. I bet almost all of them would be positive and it would create a multiplication effect.
If we can see this (for free) how is it that they (paid for this specific reason) can’t?
Perplexing.
Even if they couldn't be bothered to do that, do a lotto of first 150 and choose 15 at random.
Agree that would be epic. A Nimbus Emira up here in the Peak around Chatsworth would be a cool video (although they have already had that opportunity.....)
The thing I don't understand is where's the holdup? Rob Borrett joined the forum not too long ago and introduced himself (he's the head of media and launch programs) and I don't think we've much heard from him since, have we? Why? What happened?
The fact that he joined the forum means he's looked at it and knows what the concerns and discussions have been. What's the holdup on actively interacting with us on a weekly, or even bi-weekly basis? It would be interesting to know who's putting the brakes on Lotus employees (especially the head of media!) interacting with us. Is it Geoff? Matt? Geely? Who is it and what's the reasoning behind it?
Like you and I (and others) have said, there's a lot of fun things they could be doing with us in the meantime that don't require commitments to timelines, or factory secrets, etc. If they just did something like a weekly chat, using the format that Chris and Jack use, two guys sitting in chairs talking to each other. They could do it in the lobby at Hethel, sitting in front of the Emira on display there. A regular host could talk to people at any level from anywhere at Lotus, to bring things to life and put a face on the various departments and what they do.
They could start this at any time and I think it would be a great start to begin creating a social presence, which they really need to have to be a major player the way they want to be. It would literally require 2 chairs, some lighting, a video camera and some microphones. There are some amazing vlog videos being created by individuals on YouTube using nothing more than their iPhone. Here's just one example of a gal who did a vlog of her trip to Scotland, and she shot it on her iPhone X, and edited it on her MacBook Air all by herself.
If she can do that by herself, c'mon Lotus...
There's so many ways Lotus could be the new digital exciting brand and you've mentioned some interesting ideas. If Lotus was listed I wouldn't buy shares.
Lol well I haven't exactly shamed him. I was glad to see him join, and everybody welcomed him. So did he go on vacation since that seems to be what a lot of the staff are doing right now? I don't know... just wondered why he introduced himself then hasn't said much since.You can't name and 'shame' him
I believe Rob first registered on here because someone had seen one of the press cars at an event and made some remarks on here about the circumstances, including calling the unknown Lotus employee a w****r. Rob posted an explanation about why he hadn't revved the static car when asked or "given it the beans" leaving the event.
Generally the Lotus staff on here (and other forums) don't identify themselves or post on behalf of Lotus. I guess that's a company policy.
It would be great if Lotus would engage more, or do something more geared towards deposit holders using their other channels. Posting pictures of the press cars out and about round the UK the day they sent the delay emails was a bit insensitive!
Generally the Lotus staff on here (and other forums) don't identify themselves or post on behalf of Lotus. I guess that's a company policy.
It would be great if Lotus would engage more, or do something more geared towards deposit holders using their other channels. Posting pictures of the press cars out and about round the UK the day they sent the delay emails was a bit insensitive!
Unfortunately not. Last I heard is that they're not allowed to take photos on-site at Hethel anymore (at least not to publish publicly).
I'm sure some Lotus reps have scanned these forums and threads. It's a big operation (not as big as some other manufacturers, but still a big machine with lots of moving parts). It all comes down to numbers. Maybe they dedicate 10 minutes of their weekly or monthly executive meetings to customer engagement. Maybe one week they mention some of these threads or complaints from ROW dealers regarding comms. Then the next week they follow-up to see if anyone had any ideas on how to improve that. Then the next week they are too busy with supplier updates. Then Matt or whoever is on vacation, so they delay another 2 weeks. Then it's back to square one... "So regarding the customer comms and engagement topic from our meeting 6 weeks ago... any updates? No? Ok, next topic.."
There needs to be a dedicated communications manager with the experience, drive, AND authority to make positive changes. There are likely many reasons why they're dragging their feet on this and the customers haven't seen a difference yet. Like I said... lots of moving parts. Without a solid team, stakeholder buy-in, and fast approval turnarounds, there's only so much a company's media manager can do.* If upper-management doesn't care to listen to and prioritize us (the paying AND potential customers) there needs to be some restructuring or consulting done to make some changes ASAP.
*source: I've held that role.
Lotus branding would be far better with some more customer engagement and perhaps a fair bit more social media. Just go to Lotus Cars youtube page. Under 30K subs and maybe 10 video's in one year. Most of them rubbish commercial type videos that are under 15 seconds. Then go an see Porsche. over 1 mil sub's and maybe a 100 video's in a year. Most of them worthy of watching. I understand Porsche has more content to display, but it is an epic failure of not using social media platforms.
It is very clear that there is something wrong in the marketing department. I can not understand how a global brand like Lotus that is launching 100K+ Electric SUV's and the Emira can have such little customer engagement on social media platforms. Most manufacturers I have noticed do a weekly video with new content. All I am asking is for lotus to do 1 per month. There is more than enough unanswered questions from these forums alone to be able to produce monthly video's answering most of the questions.
I have no idea how or why it's allowed? Case and point - I have referenced Radford Motors (Jenson Button Coach Building company) a few times already. They have 36K Sub's on their YouTube page. For a one off Lotus. They do a better job promoting Lotus than Hethel does. Probably on a budget that is 1/20th the size. In all honesty it's shocking.
It is very clear that there is something wrong in the marketing department. I can not understand how a global brand like Lotus that is launching 100K+ Electric SUV's and the Emira can have such little customer engagement on social media platforms. Most manufacturers I have noticed do a weekly video with new content. All I am asking is for lotus to do 1 per month. There is more than enough unanswered questions from these forums alone to be able to produce monthly video's answering most of the questions.
I have no idea how or why it's allowed? Case and point - I have referenced Radford Motors (Jenson Button Coach Building company) a few times already. They have 36K Sub's on their YouTube page. For a one off Lotus. They do a better job promoting Lotus than Hethel does. Probably on a budget that is 1/20th the size. In all honesty it's shocking.
What we’re forgetting is Lotus will sell every single Emira they build. Why should they bother making me feel good during my wait?
Yeah but this isn't their last car and then it's doors closed. This is supposed to be the beginning of the 'new' Lotus leading into their electric era. If there's one thing the new electric era is going to be associated with (for everybody, not just Lotus), it's social media. Lotus needs to get with the program and realize their electric vehicle era customers are going to expect that. They should be using the Emira launch as the testbed for rolling that out now.
There's a 13 year old girl on YouTube who posts videos of her just playing her violin in the street for people. She started doing this when she was 9, and she now has 7.53 MILLION subscribers! She generally posts a video once a week, and they're fun to watch. She's gotten to be quite good and dances while she plays.
Here's her latest video she just posted 2 days ago, and it already has over 1 million views:
If a 13 year old girl can do this, c'mon Lotus! Social media is where it's at now. It's replaced the formerly mainstream press as the source people go to for news and entertainment. There's SO MUCH you can do in this space Lotus, and you NEED to get into this. This is what people want and expect. She and her generation are your future customer base. WAKE UP!
Apropos of nothing perhaps, but Lotus’ new Head of Supply Chain Operational Excellence starts tomorrow 8/15).
I agree with @Eagle7 on this. Its all great that the Emira was a success. If they want to be a global player especially in the EV field, they need to start using what attracts that buyer. Lotus is competing directly with Tesla and have already launched the Eletre... at the rate they are going with marketing it will not succeed in the electric space vs it's competition.
Would also enjoy seeing them tie some more of the company history into the Emira,(marketing wise) since it's the last petrol powered vehicle. I would be leaning heavy on heritage with this, getting out there what Lotus did for the automotive world and F1. Most people have no idea. Pull on some emotion. That's what driving special sports cars is all about. Catchpoole's video was a great representation of that.
I’m sensitive, as a Penn Stater, of grown men watching little girl videos.
Sounds very "you get what WE decide we give you, take or leave it; don't let the door hit you on your way out attitude".To be fair, they do have a production scheduling system and a customer management system that seem to be connected to each other.
I know they can re-run scheduling fairly quickly, as they were talking in January about needing to move from doing it monthly to doing it every 1-2 weeks because of the pace of changes in updates from suppliers.
I strongly suspect the resistance to changes is to reduce the to and fro with their suppliers, at a difficult time when they are probably focused on keeping those suppliers on track. If you've told them you want 100 Homelinks in Sept, 150 in Oct and 90 in Nov then changing that every week is confusing and disruptive.
I asked today if I could delete Homelink to bring forward my build from Oct to Sep. The answer was no, that would actually push my delivery sometime into 2023, but they couldn't say which month.
I queried why they didn't want to leave something out and get a car delivered earlier and enable Lotus to get paid sooner. The response was "any changes result in delivery being put back into 2023". So switching privacy glass, changing caliper colour, omitting tracker all kick you into some undefined point next year.
Despite what some emails said about specifications for Nov build not being locked until mid Aug, I've been told today if you are in that batch and make any change to your spec then you will also get bumped into 2023.
Lotus once again demonstrating that they are a production-focused company and not a customer-focused one
Not good.
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