Harry's Garage videos - visit to Hethel and Matt Windle interview, Emira collection and drive

[TomE]

On a side issue - have we ever had confirmation of what the 8 new colours are that Windle mentioned coming next year?

Here:

The 13 Emira Colors

Thanks everyone for such a great supportive forum! I have learnt so much over the past few months so I wanted to finally give back a little. I know everyone is really keen to know what 13 colors will be available after the First Edition! I know I was. Well it looks like they included them...

www.emiraforum.com

 

[andrew6382]

For some of us this is our 2nd proper update in over 15 months. I'd expect more than that.
Matt just said that UK cars are allegedly delayed due to prioritising EU type approval. If that's the case they knew that months ago. If they had told us that months ago, I could be in another car now and not feeling quite so jaded (grumpy)

Lets not mention, that come the first day or week of production..... no cars made.... and no seats signed off.... when i made my comment on facebook , that Matt replied to.... so they was not taking there time... they knew then they could not build finished cars

 

[TomE]

We just need to accept U.K. is a tiny market compared to the others.

But for Lotus it isn't. It's their largest market after the US, unless you want to lump all of Asia together. After Goodwood 2021 Lotus revised the country allocations and assigned more of 2022 and 2023 capacity to UK because of the number of UK deposits.

 

[donskibeat]

 

[TomE]

I thought Lotus was established car manufacturer but you can not get away from a feeling it all looks like new startup. They train people how to put cars together as we speak Bearing that in mind maybe it is better to be down the queue. Lets them practice on first 1000 batch, let them send first 500 to china

To be fair, increasing production capacity from 2000 cars a year for Elise/Exige/Evora to 5000 cars a year means hiring a lot of people.

 

[Smudge]

On a slightly different vein, at 4:51 where Harry takes the cover off of the supercharger, I think I heard a "clink". Does that mean the cover is metal? Just wondering as it would be nice to be able to powder-coat it a different color.

 

[Hedge]

But for Lotus it isn't. It's their largest market after the US, unless you want to lump all of Asia together. After Goodwood 2021 Lotus revised the country allocations and assigned more of 2022 and 2023 capacity to UK because of the number of UK deposits.

For the Emira maybe, but add Eletre into the mix and future business plan and EU, US and Asia is where it’s at, I’d guess.

I suspect the Emira is nothing more than a gap filler car while waiting for the sales juggernaut Lotus badged products to get rolling off the Chinese lines.

 

[Leonard]

But for Lotus it isn't. It's their largest market after the US, unless you want to lump all of Asia together. After Goodwood 2021 Lotus revised the country allocations and assigned more of 2022 and 2023 capacity to UK because of the number of UK deposits.

Maybe they simply think there is more goodwill here in the UK to take advantage of, when other markets wouldn't be so forgiving of delays.
I mean look how British we are all being about things

 

[Mistral]

I don't think that it's necessary to get EU approval before the UK. Yes, they are now separate applications but one isn't dependent upon the other. Metcalfe is surely just repeating what Windle implied, not what is true.

I should add that the cars destined for Northern Ireland are subject to an EU approval EU (NI), to comply with the Protocol, and, as we can imagine, and, with all due respect to those depositers, a large percentage of production is going there.

 

[Scruff111S]

Hi Tom, do you know when the Harry's Garage Hethel tour video was filmed?

 

[Dommo]

Hi Tom, do you know when the Harry's Garage Hethel tour video was filmed?

6 days ago

 

[TomE]

18:50 Matt saying not got second shift running yet, primarily due to resourcing and training, so likely to be from start of 2023. 2022 output will be about 25% of what was originally planned. Can get to 7,000 with two shifts, but not sure can hit in 2023 or in 2024.

20:10 They've done a customer survey - anyone participated?

20:20 The reason for deliveries to EU before UK is due to Brexit and separate approvals - it sounds like they went for EU approval first and then UK approval after that.

21:05 Apparently 50% of UK customers have elected for Hethel collection, which is slowing the process.

To expand on the Hethel collection point, it was Harry who suggested that would slow things down. Matt didn't directly respond to that but said they had a "mini industry" to set that up and it would be in place "very soon". Harry asked if dealer collection would speed up your delivery and Matt said not necessarily. He then admitted that Operations were building the cars they could build and not necessarily in the priority order provided by Sales.

I gather Lotus have got things in place now to handle the 50% of people collecting from Hethel.

 

[TomE]

On a slightly different vein, at 4:51 where Harry takes the cover off of the supercharger, I think I heard a "clink". Does that mean the cover is metal? Just wondering as it would be nice to be able to powder-coat it a different color.

It's metal and plenty of Evora owners have powder coated or used a high temperature paint:

 

[TomE]

Hi Tom, do you know when the Harry's Garage Hethel tour video was filmed?

What Dommo said, 10th Oct. Harry and Matt suggest his car will be out of build in two days, into final prep and delivered in 2-3 weeks from the date of filming.

 

[kenniGT]

To be fair, increasing production capacity from 2000 cars a year for Elise/Exige/Evora to 5000 cars a year means hiring a lot of people.

Those people should be trained at least half a year ago.

 

[Scruff111S]

What Dommo said, 10th Oct. Harry and Matt suggest his car will be out of build in two days, into final prep and delivered in 2-3 weeks from the date of filming.

So on that basis, my car started production on Thursday, then I should get my car about a week after Harry. Interesting to here that 50% of deposit holders have opted for Hethel collection. I have opted for dealer collection.

 

[Markc]

So on that basis, my car started production on Thursday, then I should get my car about a week after Harry. Interesting to here that 50% of deposit holders have opted for Hethel collection. I have opted for dealer collection.

I would be happy to change from a factory collection to prevent delay in delivery.

 

[spice]

Marker pen writing on suspension parts bins ? what Could possibly go wrong

 

[CarGuy07]

here’s what might happen with the second shift: demand subsides due to world factors and the high level of production is no longer needed. They still need to pay all employees for a while before laying them off. I would be careful and say turn it up to 1.5 shifts instead of two shifts. Or simply train people and have them rotate/be on call. Every company tends to hire too many people and when shit hits the fan, they scramble to cut people and everything else which leads to bad morale.

 

[kenniGT]

Marker pen writing on suspension parts bins ? what Could possibly go wrong

Kawasaki factory some 20 years ago: