Anyone received their 30 day notification yet?

[Bilbao-Emira]

I was told today that the email with major communications for all deposit holders is due out tomorrow and that checkout emails are on hold till then…

Mañana, mañana, tomorrow....

 

[Mistral]

It occurs to me that the reason why Lotus communications have been so poor is that after the decision was taken to prioritise Europe, USA and Asia, it was better to say nothing rather than be untruthful. Windle rather let the side down with his leaving the EU comment on the video. Let's see what tomorrow's delayed from today communication brings.

 

[Davidexige]

If I were a betting man, I'd put money on seeing NO such email today.

Well it’s now 17:00 and no email, so it looks like you were correct. It’s not really a surprise though, is it

 

[Scruff111S]

Direction from above clearly,Geely have told Lotus to forget about the UK small market(yes I'm sure that is what they believe) and concentrate on the bigger world.

Were you a fly on the wall when the conversation took place?

 

[prestonc]

Well it’s now 17:00 and no email, so it looks like you were correct. It’s not really a surprise though, is it

Damn, If only I WERE a betting man. Down to William Hill for me!!

 

[Scruff111S]

No 100% no. But as per my post above early UK deposit holders are being treated pretty poorly, especially as some have been long standing Lotus customers from a time when other people wouldn't even give Lotus a second look and they were thought of as a bit of a joke in regards to customer service and reliability etc

Yes, there are many early uk deposit holders on here, myself included, that in my opinion and perhaps many others, that we have been treated very poorly. The deliveries should have been 100% in deposit order. But instead the uk seems to be put to the back of the queue, and forgotten about.

 

[emiraspain]

This suggests to me that type approval is a major stumbling block for UK. If they can build RHD for Australia it’s not RHD parts issues. And if they ship 20 cars to an important but relatively smaller market, that suggests there’s a fundamental problem with the UK.

They could get cash from 100s of UK folks queuing up to take the cars, but they can’t seem to get the flow started. Hence even 20 cars sent to Australia is seen as a contribution to cashflow.

TA issues could be down to the process itself, unexpected things that were found and are being rectified, and/or Lotus mis-judging or re-prioritising the timeframes for approvals.

I agree, I dont believe for one second that the UK cars are not flowing due to greediness and profits, this is not the way most companies of this size would behave in real life IMO. I know its the popular opinion on here, but I for one think it's rubbish and I will stand outside and fight about it if necessary in Jack Reacher Style.

There is clearly something much more problematic happening, which they have not gone into and maybe never will, although the approvals are still a bit unclear to me. All you who think MW has done a great interview and very honest, well I think the opposite, I dont think we know anywhere near the truth, not the UK customers anyway!
All we "know" for "sure" is that Harry's car is now built and should be in Oxford, as it was filmed a week ago now. He should have his car in the next 2/3 weeks maximum!!! and if he doesnt get it, and no definite dates in emails, then we know there is a SERIOUS issue with UK cars that Lotus have not managed to resolve.

If however harry does get his car, then we can only assume all is well with UK parts/paperwork etc. and if cars then dont start to flow, then I will give some credence to the nasty theory conspiring around here.
I certainly didnt get an email today and I didnt expect one. At the earliest it will be thursday, always is thurs or fri, but I felt it would go out next week not this week to be honest, happy to be proved wrong.

 

[Mctaff]

Morning all, I have just got off the phone with Customer Services, apparently there is a communication going out to all today with an updated delivery time, they could not give me any further info at this point as the system is being updated and they will only know the dates 10 mins before the communication goes out, what they did say is that the communication will give you a quarter when the car is being delivered rather than a specific date.

If this is correct we should all have a delivery date later today!!!

Seems lotus need to publish a lotus speak dictionary!

Soon = not the foggiest when

Very soon = we have a vague idea when, but it’s going to change

Today = soon

 

[JohnHoward]

I agree, I dont believe for one second that the UK cars are not flowing due to greediness and profits, this is not the way most companies of this size would behave in real life IMO. I know its the popular opinion on here, but I for one think it's rubbish and I will stand outside and fight about it if necessary in Jack Reacher Style.

There is clearly something much more problematic happening, which they have not gone into and maybe never will, although the approvals are still a bit unclear to me. All you who think MW has done a great interview and very honest, well I think the opposite, I dont think we know anywhere near the truth, not the UK customers anyway!
All we "know" for "sure" is that Harry's car is now built and should be in Oxford, as it was filmed a week ago now. He should have his car in the next 2/3 weeks maximum!!! and if he doesnt get it, and no definite dates in emails, then we know there is a SERIOUS issue with UK cars that Lotus have not managed to resolve.

If however harry does get his car, then we can only assume all is well with UK parts/paperwork etc. and if cars then dont start to flow, then I will give some credence to the nasty theory conspiring around here.
I certainly didnt get an email today and I didnt expect one. At the earliest it will be thursday, always is thurs or fri, but I felt it would go out next week not this week to be honest, happy to be proved wrong.

I agree with all you have said. On Harry's video, I felt that MW looked very dejected compared with other times I have seem him such as the car launch and infamous 'Here is the first customer car' video.
One thing that we will not know is whether Harry's car has regular Type Approval (allowing full production) or Lotus get Individual Vehicle Approval for Harry's car. I don't think that normally the regulator would allow IVA on a vehicle that is going into mass production, but Lotus may present it as a final prototype with the final customer vehicle subject to further changes to get it across the line. If this is correct, it buys Lotus some more time and allows Harry to up the excitement level with new content.
Obviously, Harry would have to be made aware of the special nature of approval as it can complicate the insurance side of things, but Harry's car will be covered under his trade policy which is quite different to regular car insurance for private individuals.
I have written a fair amount about type approval on here for the automatic V6 (as this is my transmission choice) and several times, I wrote that I hope I am wrong. Sadly, I wasn't wrong, I wish I was writing on here how I had got it completely wrong.
I do hope this time that I am wrong, I really do, for the sake of all the UK deposit holders, but as these delays drag on and on, I simply can't help feeling that there is something seriously amiss

 

[DJS]

In MW own words “ITS BEEN A DISASTER”

 

[Tonyshepp]

Didn't they have approval some months ago because insurance companies were showing the Emira as a model to insure?

I agree, I dont believe for one second that the UK cars are not flowing due to greediness and profits, this is not the way most companies of this size would behave in real life IMO. I know its the popular opinion on here, but I for one think it's rubbish and I will stand outside and fight about it if necessary in Jack Reacher Style.

There is clearly something much more problematic happening, which they have not gone into and maybe never will, although the approvals are still a bit unclear to me. All you who think MW has done a great interview and very honest, well I think the opposite, I dont think we know anywhere near the truth, not the UK customers anyway!
All we "know" for "sure" is that Harry's car is now built and should be in Oxford, as it was filmed a week ago now. He should have his car in the next 2/3 weeks maximum!!! and if he doesnt get it, and no definite dates in emails, then we know there is a SERIOUS issue with UK cars that Lotus have not managed to resolve.

If however harry does get his car, then we can only assume all is well with UK parts/paperwork etc. and if cars then dont start to flow, then I will give some credence to the nasty theory conspiring around here.
I certainly didnt get an email today and I didnt expect one. At the earliest it will be thursday, always is thurs or fri, but I felt it would go out next week not this week to be honest, happy to be proved wrong.

 

[JohnHoward]

Didn't they have approval some months ago because insurance companies were showing the Emira as a model to insure?

Yes they did for a manual car only. But, something has changed and they need to resubmit for Type Approval. With regards to the UK insurance, it is set up so that once a vehicle has Type Approval, Thatcham (the alarm company) have the contract in the UK to load the details onto the insurance databases. Once this is done, it stays there, as there isn't an 'unapproval process'. So if you check a UK insurance site, you will be able to get an insurance quote as it is the original vehicle that you are being quoted against, rather than any revisions that are being/have been made. Once Lotus have a new Type Approval, if anything 'insurance sensitive' has changed, you will likely see a different quote, although it may not be significantly different.
You have never been able to get an auto quote as the V6 auto has not, to date, had any form of Type approval (in the UK).
As I posted earlier, I wonder if there is a discussion between Lotus and the Vehicle Certification Agency about when the car was really launched (legally) as the new regs that started this July may apply, as there were no finalised production cars. Having worked with government transport departments, I know what they can be like and once they dig their heels in you have got big problems and long delays. They have legislation on their side and all the time in the world, they have no concept of any commercial considerations whatsoever. They have one speed and it ain't fast!

 

[Tonyshepp]

Yes they did for a manual car only. But, something has changed and they need to resubmit for Type Approval. With regards to the UK insurance, it is set up so that once a vehicle has Type Approval, Thatcham (the alarm company) have the contract in the UK to load the details onto the insurance databases. Once this is done, it stays there, as there isn't an 'unapproval process'. So if you check a UK insurance site, you will be able to get an insurance quote as it is the original vehicle that you are being quoted against, rather than any revisions that are being/have been made. Once Lotus have a new Type Approval, if anything 'insurance sensitive' has changed, you will likely see a different quote, although it may not be significantly different.
You have never been able to get an auto quote as the V6 auto has not, to date, had any form of Type approval (in the UK).
As I posted earlier, I wonder if there is a discussion between Lotus and the Vehicle Certification Agency about when the car was really launched (legally) as the new regs that started this July may apply, as there were no finalised production cars. Having worked with government transport departments, I know what they can be like and once they dig their heels in you have got big problems and long delays. They have legislation on their side and all the time in the world, they have no concept of any commercial considerations whatsoever. They have one speed and it ain't fast!

Can I ask how you know the needed to redo type approval?

 

[JohnHoward]

Can I ask how you know the needed to redo type approval?

I don't have that confirmed, but I see some jigsaw pieces to get to the answer.
Firstly, in the Harry's video MW mentioned having to have Euro approval before they can get UK approval. This makes no sense, these are separate things. Sometimes what people don't say tells you more than what they do say.
Lotus are aware of the Type Approval related posts on here and they are not happy about it (source: Lotus contact). MW will be aware of this and he could have easily put this to bed on the video, but he didn't. He could have said that we have regulatory approval, in fact it would have been a really positive thing to say as it indicates that they are making good progress.
TomE has mentioned that the dealer demo cars are going through Individual Vehicle Approval, this I see as another piece of the puzzle. There would be no need to do this is regular Type Approval was in place.
We know that the V6 auto has never had Type Approval. Lotus refused to discuss this with me and I replied that I concluded they do not have Type Approval and if I didn't hear from them further that my conclusion is correct. They never answered.
There are no UK cars on the road, with no immediate sign of any either. Some people have completed check out but still do not have any cars or delivery dates. The cars not being Type Approved could explain this. I know that some of this is explained away by the cars going to Oxford for final preparation which seems to take a couple of weeks. This is nonsensical to me. The preparation process takes many time longer than the build process. From a commercial point of view, the cost alone would be prohibitive of a third party having a car for two weeks and having to store it, insure it, have staff to move it around and carry out whatever preparations are needed.
Sorry about the long reply, but I wanted to put all my thoughts in context to help explain them.

 

[New to Lotus]

It's not what they say it's what they don't say!!

 

[loz94]

I was told today that the email with major communications for all deposit holders is due out tomorrow and that checkout emails are on hold till then…

I spoke with CS today and was told
Friday, all info will go out to all depositors with an update.

 

[Leonard]

I spoke with CS today and was told
Friday, all info will go out to all depositors with an update.

O for goodness sake

 

[Chadder]

I spoke with CS today and was told
Friday, all info will go out to all depositors with an update. Is tomorrow

 

[Chadder]

Is tomorrow Friday ?
Or is Friday next Friday , not this Friday ?

 

[TomE]

I was told today that the email with major communications for all deposit holders is due out tomorrow and that checkout emails are on hold till then…

I spoke with CS today and was told
Friday, all info will go out to all depositors with an update.

Both answers are correct if you think both timeframes are “soon”.