Anyone received their 30 day notification yet?

[Tonyshepp]

Just spoken to a work colleague who has family working on the production line and it's not good.
There's less than 10 cars being produced a day - the cars that are being created are for the Chinese market or LHD market. The production line is halted sometimes daily for 2-3 hours as parts haven't turned up as expected that day, like seats, seat belts, sun visors.

When we hear there' cars built waiting for parts I don't believe these are for the UK market.

I'm under no illusion that my October build now won't be built before Q1 next year

 

[DerTheDer]

I am sure my March 23 US order will be August/September 23.

 

[CDM1855]

Just spoken to a work colleague who has family working on the production line and it's not good.
There's less than 10 cars being produced a day - the cars that are being created are for the Chinese market or LHD market. The production line is halted sometimes daily for 2-3 hours as parts haven't turned up as expected that day, like seats, seat belts, sun visors.

When we hear there' cars built waiting for parts I don't believe these are for the UK market.

I'm under no illusion that my October build now won't be built before Q1 next year

They can’t be for the Chinese market because they’re only getting the AMG engine. interesting to see what will happen to all those UK cars that were promised to be manufactured in Oct

 

[Tonyshepp]

They can’t be for the Chinese market because they’re only getting the AMG engine. interesting to see what will happen to all those UK cars that were promised to be manufactured in Oct

Specifically said Asian spec so i was assuming it would be China - perhaps they aren't customer cars but demos as China certainly seems to have the V6 models doing the rounds.

 

[CDM1855]

Specifically said Asian spec so i was assuming it would be China - perhaps they aren't customer cars but demos as China certainly seems to have the V6 models doing the rounds.

Hmm that’s interesting. Hong Kong , Singapore, Japan, Thailand and Malaysia would be RHD. China LHD but seems odd to showcase V6 when it’s not being sold there

Nowhere else in Asia would really be a market for these cars

 

[Tonyshepp]

Hmm that’s interesting. Hong Kong , Singapore, Japan and Malaysia would be RHD. China LHD but seems odd to showcase V6 when it’s not being sold there

Nowhere else in Asia would really be a market for these cars

was very specific on Asia and had no reason to mention it. He's no reason to lie as he isnt invested in Lotus either way.

I think all this is a re-run of August when we were told we'd get our cars and then no comms and then August came and went.

It does give credibility to the fact the UK demonstrators are still 2-3 weeks away - and that's not a definite. Perhaps the September 9 will be the September 1.

 

[CDM1855]

was very specific on Asia and had no reason to mention it. He's no reason to lie as he isnt invested in Lotus either way.

I think all this is a re-run of August when we were told we'd get our cars and then no comms and then August came and went.

It does give credibility to the fact the UK demonstrators are still 2-3 weeks away - and that's not a definite. Perhaps the September 9 will be the September 1.

I think Q1 2023 is looking likely, at that point It may as well be March

 

[Tonyshepp]

I think Q1 2023 is looking likely, at that point It may as well be March

Best buy a used Aston during recession and before AML go bankrupt

 

[emiraspain]

Just talked to my mate and he asked the question.
Where is your car ?
I gave him the latest info, he laughed and said, I think they want you to cancell and then sell them for overs at the dealers.
Never thought about that.

this is not so easy, and is hence highly unlikely. its not the dealer who is delaying, its lotus........ if the dealers start pulling tricks like this, they would be eliminated very quickly and so again, I am 99.99% this is not the case

 

[virtualmacho]

Could be for China. It's not illegal to sell the V6 there, just expensive to buy and own. If the i4 is going to be delayed further, it would make sense to market the V6 to those who can afford it. There are likely many who can...

 

[emiraspain]

* * * * *

Rather astonishing, strange and a little frightening.......recent posts from the German Lotus Forum:

Hello everyone, the price for the Emira is not even very exaggerated. The price is also negotiable. So if someone really wants an Emira and has the cash to do so, they will definitely hit it. Lotus has already pointed out that the Emiras, if they have not yet been pre-ordered, will be significantly more expensive next year. Yesterday I asked the Haese company. The "boss" said that a surcharge of at least 10-15% would have to be expected. As I said at least...

The vehicles after the First Edition will be more expensive because many equipment items have to be ordered, right. However, "my" dealer LOTUS Haese Villingen currently has 5 Emiras, of which m.W. only 2 customer vehicles are. I.e. 3 are available, without surcharge.

View attachment 9749

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Neues zur Emira - Lotus Forum

Hallo, vielleicht haben es ja einige von Euch auf der Lotus-Homepage bereits gesehen: Die Lotus Emira wird in Deutschland und vielen anderen Ländern ab sofort nur noch im "Direktvertrieb" vermarktet. Bestellung, Zahlung etc. online über Lotus England.…

www.lotus-forum.de

ok so the obvious question, are the three cars hanging around 100% not dealer cars? A dealer should have 2 to 3 cars, in Spain the dealer has 3 cars or will have if they ever get delivered and they CANNOT be sold.
So I dont speak german and dont trust all I read anyway, but I think a bit more is needed here before we assume there are 3 cars sat there without customers that cannot be sold even at list price, it makes no sense as there are many customers in Germany awaiting their cars.........
It would also seem unlikely there have been 3 cancelled orders out of maybe 5 or 6 cars, 50% cancellation rate would seem outrageous.
I realise I myself am struggling to potentially sell a car in Spain, but thats as I dont have the car and the Spanish market for sports cars is awful in general.....

 

[Leonard]

I would have agreed with you a few months ago, but now I am not so sure. I think the way the economy is going, the used car market could change very rapidly. Also, if there are any negative reports once cars start being delivered his could further impact the desirability. If there are issues with PDI's on exported cars as reported in other threads, this does not necessarily bode well for overall quality.
Sorry to sound negative, but we learn with the passage of time and Lotus are giving that in abundance with our delayed orders.
It is quite disturbing to see members of this forum who were hardcore brand supporters (me included), starting to slowly turn against Lotus.

100%
Emira looks attractive at the moment with all of the inflated prices.
What happens when they normalise and consumers can get a 6 month old loaded Cayman GTS for £65k.
Especially if Emira prices then go up by 10-15%. I simply don't see them competing at that price point based on motoring reviews and consumer expectation

 

[emiraspain]

Just spoken to a work colleague who has family working on the production line and it's not good.
There's less than 10 cars being produced a day - the cars that are being created are for the Chinese market or LHD market. The production line is halted sometimes daily for 2-3 hours as parts haven't turned up as expected that day, like seats, seat belts, sun visors.

When we hear there' cars built waiting for parts I don't believe these are for the UK market.

I'm under no illusion that my October build now won't be built before Q1 next year

this would not be that surprising... ... sept 9... sept 1... now november 1.....
I really think this is like being hungry... you want some food.... then you want something fast as you get hungrier...it looks more and more appealing.... but BUT..after a while, the hunger passes... and you lose interest, no longer hungry at all.

I for one wont be spending the winter here through until March.... I may not have many better things to do, but I would aim to find them.
The only good thing is that not many of us really want a car between December and February anyway, if it wasn't for this, I would 100% cancel. Looks like I may have to take the Spanish car in the end....and not the UK one.. who knew...

 

[Rudolph]

Could be for China. It's not illegal to sell the V6 there, just expensive to buy and own. If the i4 is going to be delayed further, it would make sense to market the V6 to those who can afford it. There are likely many who can...

* * * * *
In a previous post on this forum or some other Lotus Forum it was already announced that Hethel will ship V6's for sale in China.....in spite of the original policy to sell only 4i in China.
Could be to overcome the delayed shipment of 4i's to China / and or to overcome the by Htethel reported homogolation delays for the 4i.
I believe it was a Chines poster as far as I remeber......
BTW, the Dutch dealer i visited 2 days ago, says that he expect the 4i earliest to be delivered in 2024.

 

[CDM1855]

* * * * *
In a previous post on this forum or some other Lotus Forum it was already announced that Hethel will ship V6's for sale in China.....in spite of the original policy to sell only 4i in China.
Could be to overcome the delayed shipment of 4i's to China / and or to overcome the by Htethel reported homogolation delays for the 4i.
I believe it was a Chines poster as far as I remeber......

That clears it up then

 

[Lotustoronto]

Lotus is in the middle of a precarious situation.

1. Prioritizing non-UK cars. This has mostly to do with parts supply. However, I am of the opinion that any contracts made in USD with foreign dealer networks (asian/Latin America/North America etc.) are going to be prioritized at the moment. It makes logical sense as a business to take advantage of 10-15% profit increases on F/X. If you have ever been in board meetings these things are discussed and those kinds of percentages when we are talking about 100's of millions of dollars make a big difference.

2. Lotus CS has been told to not divulge any negative information at this time regarding delay's. They absolutely know what the current delay situation is. It's not being communicated. The situation is fluid, however does not seem to be improving. IMHO.

3. Directors of Logistics / Procurement / CS need to be re-evaluated as this level of supply problems is not normal, even in today's situation. 1,000's of employees work at Hethel to be producing under 10 cars a day (if that, seems less) after a year of delays means each vehicle is actually built at a loss to the company. Not sustainable, someone needs to be held accountable. At this pace, they will not hit any production targets next year.

4. Lotus is fully aware they have botched the roll out and are now working backwards. They are seeing a serious world wide recession unfolding, and depositors are now calling for refunds probably more often than deposits coming in. The worst situation possible is having these cars delivered to dealers and be sitting on lots unsold due to customers not taking delivery. They are purposely holding back test drives until they have fully grasped the situation and have a plan to combat this. I imagine they want customers that were thinking of flipping to drop out so that it does not worsen the situation. Not sure how they can do that without ticking off everyone.

5. Pricing... It is almost certain the only way to fix some of the problems is to increase pricing. This may deepen the problem (point 4) and just make the Emira another Evora situation. Sitting unsold and seemingly undesirable. Interest rates have steadily increased and today's CPI report from the US guarantees another two more rate increases to bring inflation under control at a minimum. (which will further strengthen the US dollar) Couple that with a 10-15% increase to the base price Emira and we are baking a cake that is not tasting as sweet. Bringing the i4 engine into competition with 718 4.0 flat 6's price will be an issue that auto reviewers will not over look. It will get absolutely blasted by every Auto Mag and YouTuber, since it's base starting MSRP was probably the main attraction for most (outside of the looks). The base V6 will be nearing base 911 money and will no longer be competitivly priced with GTS/F-type (the two cars Lotus has publicly said they are competing against through dealer training info)

6. The last ICE era. The competition from other auto manufacturers is going to increase significantly. The next year + we are going to see almost every auto marquee use this to their advantage. We are going to see some pretty cool cars come out as the designers for the last ICE models won't be holding back.

These are just my thoughts... I hope they got the right people at Lotus to figure this out and stop alienating their customers along the way.

 

[Leonard]

Lotus is in the middle of a precarious situation.

1. Prioritizing non-UK cars. This has mostly to do with parts supply. However, I am of the opinion that any contracts made in USD with foreign dealer networks (asian/Latin America/North America etc.) are going to be prioritized at the moment. It makes logical sense as a business to take advantage of 10-15% profit increases on F/X. If you have ever been in board meetings these things are discussed and those kinds of percentages when we are talking about 100's of millions of dollars make a big difference.

2. Lotus CS has been told to not divulge any negative information at this time regarding delay's. They absolutely know what the current delay situation is. It's not being communicated. The situation is fluid, however does not seem to be improving. IMHO.

3. Directors of Logistics / Procurement / CS need to be re-evaluated as this level of supply problems is not normal, even in today's situation. 1,000's of employees work at Hethel to be producing under 10 cars a day (if that, seems less) after a year of delays means each vehicle is actually built at a loss to the company. Not sustainable, someone needs to be held accountable. At this pace, they will not hit any production targets next year.

4. Lotus is fully aware they have botched the roll out and are now working backwards. They are seeing a serious world wide recession unfolding, and depositors are now calling for refunds probably more often than deposits coming in. The worst situation possible is having these cars delivered to dealers and be sitting on lots unsold due to customers not taking delivery. They are purposely holding back test drives until they have fully grasped the situation and have a plan to combat this. I imagine they want customers that were thinking of flipping to drop out so that it does not worsen the situation. Not sure how they can do that without ticking off everyone.

5. Pricing... It is almost certain the only way to fix some of the problems is to increase pricing. This may deepen the problem (point 4) and just make the Emira another Evora situation. Sitting unsold and seemingly undesirable. Interest rates have steadily increased and today's CPI report from the US guarantees another two more rate increases to bring inflation under control at a minimum. (which will further strengthen the US dollar) Couple that with a 10-15% increase to the base price Emira and we are baking a cake that is not tasting as sweet. Bringing the i4 engine into competition with 718 4.0 flat 6's price will be an issue that auto reviewers will not over look. It will get absolutely blasted by every Auto Mag and YouTuber, since it's base starting MSRP was probably the main attraction for most (outside of the looks). The base V6 will be nearing base 911 money and will no longer be competitivly priced with GTS/F-type (the two cars Lotus has publicly said they are competing against through dealer training info)

6. The last ICE era. The competition from other auto manufacturers is going to increase significantly. The next year + we are going to see almost every auto marquee use this to their advantage. We are going to see some pretty cool cars come out as the designers for the last ICE models won't be holding back.

These are just my thoughts... I hope they got the right people at Lotus to figure this out and stop alienating their customers along the way.

Same as my thoughts.
I'm just too tired today to type up anything as all encompassing and informative however.
Good job

 

[Bilbao-Emira]

ok so the obvious question, are the three cars hanging around 100% not dealer cars? A dealer should have 2 to 3 cars, in Spain the dealer has 3 cars or will have if they ever get delivered and they CANNOT be sold.
So I dont speak german and dont trust all I read anyway, but I think a bit more is needed here before we assume there are 3 cars sat there without customers that cannot be sold even at list price, it makes no sense as there are many customers in Germany awaiting their cars.........
It would also seem unlikely there have been 3 cancelled orders out of maybe 5 or 6 cars, 50% cancellation rate would seem outrageous.
I realise I myself am struggling to potentially sell a car in Spain, but thats as I dont have the car and the Spanish market for sports cars is awful in general.....

only one small correction, as far as I understood, the dealer in Spain will have two cars, not three.
one demo and one showroom.
First to arrive supposedly is the magma red manual, due for mid October, and no news as of today.
Second one is Shadow Auto, postponed sine die.
What I don't understand, is why they send five cars to one dealer in Germany and a few to Belgium and Holland, over the last two months, and not even one demo with similar specs to the only dealer they have in Spain.
Surely cannot be because of LHD parts missing, looks to me more like a lack of control over the logistics in this specific case, or they don't give a shit about the only dealer they have for a whole country.
The rest about those three cars sitting in Germany, I agree with you, makes no sense.

 

[Mistral]

the more it stays the same...very good. I wish I could speak french.... even though Im here often, Im terrible at it.... but keep tryinggggg

Incidentally, without wishing to offend, do you speak Spanish with a Midlands accent? I ask because I knew a Flemish Belgian lady in Spain who spent a number of years running a cafe in the Midlands, had excellent English, but with a Midlands accent! I've always wondered whether her Spanish, at which she was very good, also had a Midlands accent, but my limited Spanish wasn't good enough to determine.

 

[prestonc]

Incidentally, without wishing to offend, do you speak Spanish with a Midlands accent? I ask because I knew a Flemish Belgian lady in Spain who spent a number of years running a cafe in the Midlands, had excellent English, but with a Midlands accent! I've always wondered whether her Spanish, at which she was very good, also had a Midlands accent, but my limited Spanish wasn't good enough to determine.

LOL! I always joke (well I laugh) when my wife speaks Farsi to her family. She was born in the UK, but has tons of Iranian family. When she speaks Farsi, I say it's like me speaking French with a Birmingham accent!