Factory Tour - Production watch!

[NickR]

If anyone is going on the tour from week beginning 23rd can you report on whether the factory has started production? This will give us our best estimate on when the car will finally arrive.

 

[BeHappy]

If anyone is going on the tour from week beginning 23rd can you report on whether the factory has started production? This will give us our best estimate on when the car will finally arrive.

just thinking that also when we will we get to know exact delivery dates - Mine is supposedly July and I haven’t been asked where I would like car delivered to ? I don’t live near any dealers so correct arrangements need to be made I’ve even based my holiday aboard around this blumin car so I hope they give us more than 5 mins notice ! We’re all busy people

 

[NickR]

just thinking that also when we will we get to know exact delivery dates - Mine is supposedly July and I haven’t been asked where I would like car delivered to ? I don’t live near any dealers so correct arrangements need to be made I’ve even based my holiday aboard around this blumin car so I hope they give us more than 5 mins notice ! We’re all busy people

I suspect further delays. Hopefully not but it all seems a bit too quiet.

 

[Gizmo750]

I'm due to go on the 23rd so I'm happy to report back

 

[Cutting42]

I am going the week after

 

[TomE]

just thinking that also when we will we get to know exact delivery dates - Mine is supposedly July and I haven’t been asked where I would like car delivered to ? I don’t live near any dealers so correct arrangements need to be made I’ve even based my holiday aboard around this blumin car so I hope they give us more than 5 mins notice ! We’re all busy people

They should be in touch at least 30 days beforehand, to confirm expected delivery date and ask you about delivery location, financing, part ex, registration, paying the balance etc. So in theory early in June for the July delivery batch.

 

[DJS]

I think we are all holding our breath hoping and praying that we don't get moved forward another month or worse.

This has been the longest wait of my life but i'm sure it will be worth it.

 

[Sirtreeman]

Went on the tour on the 9th, lots of staff hanging around, supply chain delays the problem as mentioned on here previously

 

[TomE]

They’ve also been encouraging staff to take some leave now while they are delayed waiting on parts. Hopefully that means they can ramp up abs run at full output from July.

 

[emiraspain]

just thinking that also when we will we get to know exact delivery dates - Mine is supposedly July and I haven’t been asked where I would like car delivered to ? I don’t live near any dealers so correct arrangements need to be made I’ve even based my holiday aboard around this blumin car so I hope they give us more than 5 mins notice ! We’re all busy people

thats weird as I am July too, originally June, and I was asked in an email at least 4- 6 weeks ago where I would like to collect the car from, factory, agent or..... They said I can change my mind later, but the initial question should have been asked..... But again, until delivery date confirmed, doesnt really matter.....
Yes they need to be entering into production over the next 2 weeks or so, or else there wont be anybody receiving their car in July I'd say..... i'm 50% confident..

 

[TomE]

They asked a sample about delivery options so they could gauge interest in factory collection. They didn’t ask everyone and it was indicative rather than a firm decision.

 

[Ian C]

I think we are all holding our breath hoping and praying that we don't get moved forward another month or worse.

This has been the longest wait of my life but i'm sure it will be worth it.

I can wait but if they move the price up as well ...

 

[NickR]

Anyone seen any signs of activity??

 

[Gizmo750]

I was there on Monday afternoon this week and the short answer is no, no production of actual customer cars going on.
There are a lot of cars about and I got to see all the body colours and most of the interiors too, which was my primary reason for going as I need to lock my spec in this month for November delivery.
They are doing stuff, but its a skeleton staff and all of the cars are pre-production.
I can't see them delivering customer cars in July given that we are nearly in June. Delays over parts availability (Shanghai shutdown) were mentioned, as well as all the other worldwide crap going on at the moment.

 

[emiraspain]

I was there on Monday afternoon this week and the short answer is no, no production of actual customer cars going on.
There are a lot of cars about and I got to see all the body colours and most of the interiors too, which was my primary reason for going as I need to lock my spec in this month for November delivery.
They are doing stuff, but its a skeleton staff and all of the cars are pre-production.
I can't see them delivering customer cars in July given that we are nearly in June. Delays over parts availability (Shanghai shutdown) were mentioned, as well as all the other worldwide crap going on at the moment.

thats a. shame and yes its hard to see them out of the blue starting to make 120 cars in June if they are not already making around half that, although they do seem to be getting through their phone calls in order.
50/50 it seems for July delivery.... THen they have an issue as mentioned before as many August people will delay until September, but well, not a big issue, just one of storage for those not going to a dealer...

 

[Eagle7]

Once they get the signal to start the production line, they'll be making I'm guessing 3 cars an hour; 1 every 20 minutes to begin with. 24 in an 8 hour shift, 30 in a 10 hour shift. Taking the lower number just to be conservative, that's 240 cars in 10 days, and that's probably the slowest rate; once they get things up and running they'll be able to pick up the pace. Their original target was 17 minutes per car.

As long as the supply line holds, I don't see them having any problem meeting production goals for June.

 

[TomE]

They won’t start at anywhere near full capacity. More like 50% then scale up each week over a 4-6 week timeframe.

They only build on 4 days a week and one shift at full rate is 100 cars per week. So 200-300 in June is realistic, then double that in July.

Remember they can’t run full double shift output levels as there’s a bottleneck on chassis production in the short term.

 

[EF_Guest234]

I was there yesterday, everything on the line was Pre-Production. Though they had about 30 Chassis staged at the start of the line marked Production Cars. They estimated production starting soon, which i took as early June. 17 min at each station is the target so about 20 cars a day once running up to speed.

I had my call last week and email Monday on my delivery choices and if i was trading a car in or not. Which fits with the one month lead as the last message end of April was a July delivery date.

They did make a point that supply delays may have a bigger effect on timings and September is a much more realistic expectation.

Sales and production are separate at Lotus so expect that until production starts and they release final cars to Sales team for allocation, we wont truly know a realistic delivery date.

 

[Nick in Sydney]

So where on earth are the new cars? Surely production has been going for a couple weeks now?

I can't believe it's July and we still haven't seen a car park filled with new Emiras or a truck carrying them off to the dealers.

 

[Citizen]

So where on earth are the new cars? Surely production has been going for a couple weeks now?

I can't believe it's July and we still haven't seen a car park filled with new Emiras or a truck carrying them off to the dealers.

The emiras are in your hearth