Early review teaser!

Nice touch & early review teaser from Bell & Colvill

For those who are wondering, I think the key ring gift is dark verdant!

 

[EmiraMike]

hi chap, when did you place your first deposit????

July 14th

 

[TomE]

The dealer payment structure is a mix of sales fee and delivery fee. It doesn’t just depend on if you nominate home or dealer delivery or factory collection.

The dealers no longer have to buy demo cars and depreciate them, or pay stocking charges. They need less working capital.

Despite Lotus trumpeting the new direct model as “the future”, they’ve had to incentivise the dealers to sell and deliver and service. They’ve asked them to do rebranding costing £50-150k per dealer, so they need to make a return on that.

 

[TomE]

That sounds very high - thought it nearer 1k.

Hope the dealers do get weighed out well.

I assume those that order home delivery, or 3rd party like me, will see the car delivered to the chosen dealer, B&C, then it goes on to the destination? That would impact cost for sure. Maybe it is £1k for the TDI and handover only.

If you go for home/detailer delivery then it goes direct to that address from the distribution centre. That’s the central hub for PDI and prep in Oxford. From there they go to dealers, homes and (strangely) back to Hethel for people who want factory collection.

Dealer gets the delivery fee if they do the delivery. Sales fee is separate.

 

[Lots_Of_Trouble]

Shame the dealers are making £0.00 on new Emira sales.

Thanks Jamie, for the formal touch.

Aren't they getting a cut drom the ridiculous £1045 delivery??

 

[emiraspain]

Nice touch & early review teaser from Bell & Colvill
View attachment 6156
For those who are wondering, I think the key ring gift is dark verdant!

what about the gap between the ring and the hole it goes into...and is that the same stitching we wont get on the steering wheel? hah..
yes a very nice touch, there is a company that knows how to treat its customers... not like many others. If I am not wrong, they were in fact the first company to offer a Lotus with a turbo charger ... before Lotus even offered it themselves, increasing the power quite a bit of the Esprit ... or ......
Lotus themselves could learn from their customer pre-sales experience... its not rocket science!

 

[freefall_junkie]

It’s a straight 2.5k, the only overhead against that is the handover. That’s actually lower than I would have thought.

As we already know the PDI and plates all done the Oxford/Hethal end.

£2.5k just to hand the car over For that I really hope they make it feel like an event - a theatrical reveal of the car with the cover being whisked off, bottle of bubbly, Matt Windle dropping by to thank me profusely for my custom, that kind of thing

 

[emiraspain]

It’s a straight 2.5k, the only overhead against that is the handover. That’s actually lower than I would have thought.

As we already know the PDI and plates all done the Oxford/Hethal end.

Ive no doubt thats what they told you and hence it must be true, but I can also say I spoke to the Lotus / Mclaren Agent in Birmingham / Solihull and they at least indicated it was no where near that for the handover, and when I say no where near that, I am talking about 20% of that.
I imagine a regular car a dealer makes about 10-15% max, plus maybe a year end bonus if they hit certain targets. Years ago it could have been higher than that, when the French companies used to give 10% discounts to get the sale, but that doesnt happen so much these days.
I was a "dealer" on the smallest possible scale you can imagine in South America, with the smallest possible company you can imagine, and I only made 8%, irrelevant of sales quantities. These days the same company offers 15%.
So 2,500 is 3.33%, which is small fry, which I still think in part is why the car is relatively well priced, given that their overheads will be higher than Porsches, who manufacture at a scale thats off the scale compared to Lotus. Although having said that, in the EU, with higher registration taxes, the direct competitor is not the 718 GTS, but the GT4 or Spyder, which makes it a MUCH harder sell and perhaps that should have been taken into account by Lotus if they really want penetration in the EU. The more successful the Emira is, the easier it will be to sell the EV and any future Lotus product, hence it could also be a loss leader for them. I guess it everyone went for the base model and didnt add any extras, they would be screwed... if they stick to their 60k and dont invent some other charges on top of it.

 

[TomE]

There are two fees, the sales fee and the delivery fee. The delivery fee is about £500. Dealers can get one or the other or both.

 

[emiraspain]

There are two fees, the sales fee and the delivery fee. The delivery fee is about £500. Dealers can get one or the other or both.

that makes sense... I didnt want to risk the reproach, but yes I thought he said 500 re car hand over, which you think is nothing, but someone has to give up an hour of their time receiving the car and taking off any protection that may be on it. Parking it, storing it until hand over and then handover, explaining the various functions and coffee / biscuits etc. Maybe 3 hours of staff time and storage, I think 500 is not much with all the over heads and certainly the dealer was NOT happy about such a small amount. A sales person with all allocated overheads probably costs them close to 70 pounds an hour...... the sales fee seems a bit more reasonable as for that, they are not logging into Lotus's build system, as it doesnt exist for them and the dealer probably doesnt get any more info that we do directly...

 

[DJS]

If its not at least 2.5k for a dealer then its not even a viable business, lets say each dealer does 100 cars ish a year basing that on 1200 uk cars, that would be a straight 250k a year revenue with all the dealerships costs against it for 12 months. Now don't get me wrong i'm not in the car selling business but if people are say they are getting much less than that I won't be opening up a Lotus dealership in the UK anytime soon.

Maybe that margin is expectable with dealers who selling other brands alongside Lotus.

 

[emiraspain]

If its not at least 2.5k for a dealer then its not even a viable business, lets say each dealer does 100 cars ish a year basing that on 1200 uk cars, that would be a straight 250k a year revenue with all the dealerships costs against it for 12 months. Now don't get me wrong i'm not in the car selling business but if people are say they are getting much less than that I won't be opening up a Lotus dealership in the UK anytime soon.

Maybe that margin is expectable with dealers who selling other brands alongside Lotus.

its terribly low yes.... they are not happy, at least not the one I spoke to and they were not even that happy regarding what they would make on parts and service, and this can count for a serious chunk of a dealerships income, but we shall see. Maybe Lotus intend to go down the Tesla route in the long term... I have a sneaky feeling they may, but so may other companies much larger than Lotus.

 

[Pav]

In all seriousness that is a really nice touch.

It really doesn't take very much to make customers happy!

I'm away but hoping to see the jiffy bag on the mat when I get back. Agree these things do make so much difference. Might be enough to make me opt back to dealer delivery. I said I was undecided when I had my confirmation call the other day, as after a good conversation it became apparent home/detailer delivery may mean getting the car a tad quicker (as direct from Oxford).

Either way, good work B&C. As an admitted OCD type, I still want to know if they will put their own plates on the Emira or hand them over with whatever Oxford put on.

 

[TomE]

that makes sense... I didnt want to risk the reproach, but yes I thought he said 500 re car hand over, which you think is nothing, but someone has to give up an hour of their time receiving the car and taking off any protection that may be on it. Parking it, storing it until hand over and then handover, explaining the various functions and coffee / biscuits etc. Maybe 3 hours of staff time and storage, I think 500 is not much with all the over heads and certainly the dealer was NOT happy about such a small amount. A sales person with all allocated overheads probably costs them close to 70 pounds an hour...... the sales fee seems a bit more reasonable as for that, they are not logging into Lotus's build system, as it doesnt exist for them and the dealer probably doesnt get any more info that we do directly...

Dealers will soon have demo cars and will be doing test drives. Based on level of interest so far and the press reviews coming out next week, I think the dealer sales folks are going to be incredibly busy from July onwards. They can still help customers place deposits/orders.

 

[mjw930]

its terribly low yes.... they are not happy, at least not the one I spoke to and they were not even that happy regarding what they would make on parts and service, and this can count for a serious chunk of a dealerships income, but we shall see. Maybe Lotus intend to go down the Tesla route in the long term... I have a sneaky feeling they may, but so may other companies much larger than Lotus.

Dealers / Agents were pitched the long game. No one, especially Lotus Cars, are viable with just the Emira. It’s the promise of the future EV’s that will make and keep them viable.

 

[Flashback]

It’s a nice touch.

I got mine last week - early adopter

But my scale model has been delayed….

Your scale model has been delayed?

It's an exact replica of the real thing in every way.

 

[TomE]

The model manufacturer's website still says "coming in May", so they are also taking lessons from Lotus on customer comms

Maybe they are embargoed until after tomorrow, so I can't publish an unauthorised test drive review

 

[EspritGuy]

The model manufacturer's website still says "coming in May", so they are also taking lessons from Lotus on customer comms

Maybe they are embargoed until after tomorrow, so I can't publish an unauthorised test drive review

It's the seats. You know it's because of the seats.