Auto100 - UK Trader in Sutton in Ashfield

[Nova]

I think it might have been due to the Q4 financial statement and the comments within. They wanted rid of the cars on THEIR Books, so got rid of them at a cheap price to a non-Franchised dealership, so they no longer had anything to do with Lotus. Legallly, they had sold them.

Geez, you are right. They booked the revenue and assumed some nominal "warranty" liability.

 

[Lotustoronto]

I suspect going forward Geely is going to put a stop to typical Lotus over supply. The sales agency model disaster was run by the team at Hethel, so this can squarely fall on their shoulders. In China they have maintained the agency / direct to customer model. Lotus has a history of over building cars based on the demand - which usually resulted in heavy discounts, even on new Lotus cars. However, with new Lotus (sports cars from UK) now being sold in A LOT more areas (India, China / GCC) than before and a lot more stores, I do think Hethel's 4K-5K per year (max) output will almost always be in line with demand. I don't think we will see a huge amount of Emira's for sale at dealers by end of this year as they try to sort out the demand vs supply.

Has anyone else noticed that none of the UK youtube's have reviewed the new i4 Emira?

 

[jonsealsportscars]

Did Auto100 actually purchase the cars or got them on a sale or return basis? I would guess the latter as they had over 40 Emiras and Eletres, that is a massive investment for an independent dealership.

Auto100 are getting the bad rep and not the Lotus dealerships, the dealers are also getting the warranty work so a win/win for them.

They would have bought them. Lotus needed some cash. Auto100 are a pretty big business holding 22m in stock so a few Emiras isn't going to dent that all too much.

 

[Sasquatch]

They would have bought them. Lotus needed some cash. Auto100 are a pretty big business holding 22m in stock so a few Emiras isn't going to dent that all too much.

They’re big hitters.
Lots of cash behind them.

 

[Nick in Sydney]

They would have bought them. Lotus needed some cash.

Don't think this is quite right. Lotus has plenty of cash at the moment. The CEO said on their earnings call that they were discounting cars in Q4 in order to clear a backlog of older stock in the UK and so they could come into 2025 with no more discounting. He said this was particularly important because they didn't want Lotus dealers to be discounting when they launch the TYP 134.